The Brightest Witch of Her Age
by sevenpurplebubbles
Summary: Journey through the Harry Potter series through the eyes of Hermione Granger. Rated T for violence.
1. Welcome to the Wizarding World

Chapter 1: Welcome to the Wizarding World

I heard a knock on the front door, quickly followed by my mum calling to me from the bottom of the stairs.

"Hermione, please come down to the living room," she called.

I sighed, because I was just at the last few pages of the book I was reading and I really wanted to finish it. I had already finished the summer reading list for my year, and I was now reading the books on the summer reading list for the year above me.

I got to my feet and headed downstairs to the living room, curious to see who had come to visit. When I walked into the room, though, I did not recognize the woman sitting in the armchair across from mum and dad.

When I entered, she stood up to shake my hand, and I noticed that she was dressed rather strangely. She wore a long dark green cloak which completely covered any regular clothes she may have been wearing. Her hair was pulled back into a tight bun and she struck me as a very serious person.

"You must be Hermione," she said, and she sat back down in the armchair, leaving me to sit in the rocking chair since mum and dad were on the couch.

I looked over at mum and dad in the hopes of getting some kind of clue as to who this woman was, but they appeared just as confused as I was.

"Yes, I am," I said, unsure of how else to respond.

"My name is Professor McGonagall, I am a teacher at a very special school," the woman replied. I suddenly became excited. Maybe I was getting accepted into one of the advanced programs I had applied for, or perhaps it was the school for gifted students that my last school suggested I apply to. Maybe I was going to be allowed to skip a year or two and move into the seventh or eighth years.

"I am here to offer you a place at my school," Professor McGonagall continued. I smile started to spread on my face. I wouldn't have to endure months of being taunted by Nancy Hummel and her friends for being smart.

"Which school are you from?" Dad asked from the couch. "Are you from the Academy?" he was referring to the Academy for gifted children, of course, to which we had applied a couple months ago.

"No, I am not from any school you have ever heard of. The name of my school is Hogwarts," Professor McGonagall replied. I wondered what kind of school Hogwarts could be and then I wondered how I could have been accepted into this school without having applied.

"Hogwarts is not the kind of school you would expect, I am sure," Professor McGonagall continued, pausing to see if any of us were going to intervene. She went on "Hogwarts is a school that teaches its students to study magic."

Magic – what does that even mean? I this woman suggesting that I attend this school and learn to do card tricks and saw through people in boxes and then put them back together? That is the silliest thing I have ever heard, and I am certainly a person who believes in doing serious things.

Mum seemed to be wondering the same thing as me, because she asked "what do you mean when you say magic?"

In response, Professor McGonagall reached under her cloak and pulled out a wooden stick, which I assumed was what she considered to be a magic wand, not that I thought it was anything more than a piece of wood. She raised the wand and pointed it at the coffee table in the center of the room.

"Wingardium Leviosa," she said, and the table slowly began to rise off of the floor. She kept her wand trained on it and it rose all the way up to the ceiling and then came back down again. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, I was at a complete loss for words, and then I regained control of my brain and remembered that magic is not real.

"It's just an illusion," I said. "There must have been wires or something holding to table up. I've read all about these kinds of tricks."

"Do you see any ropes or wires?" Professor McGonagall asked calmly. Though I tried hard to find something, I could not figure out what she used to lift the table. Seeing that I was still not convinced, she pointed her wand at the remote control for the television that was sitting on a side table a little ways away and said "Accio." The remote immediately flew into her outstretched hand.

I still had a little difficulty believing her. I mean, all the facts say that magic cannot and does not exist, but Professor McGonagall was making it very difficult to cling to my facts. Seeing that I was still struggling with what she was trying to tell me, Professor McGonagall stood up, and with a very determined expression on her face, she disappeared out of thin air, only to appear seconds later across the room at the doorway.

I realized that there was no way she could have faked it and I came to the conclusion that I had to believe that magic exists. Mum and dad seemed a little panicked, but they also believed her.

"Do you believe me now?" Professor McGonagall said, heading back to her chair and sitting down in it.

"Yes, you have clearly demonstrated that magic is real," dad said to her, his eyes still wide from her display. "But why are we finding out now?"

"Hermione here," Professor McGonagall began, gesturing to me while still talking to dad, "is a member of the magical community, having magical blood in her veins, while the two of you do not have any magic in your blood and as such are members of the non-magical community. Due to the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy, members of the magical community are prohibited from revealing the very existence of a magical community to members of the non-magical community unless a situation such as this arises."

"How did Hermione end up with magic in her blood if we don't have any?" dad asked, clearly still confused.

"Sometimes this does happen; a magical child can be born to non-magical parents. I do not assume to be an expert in why these things happen, nor do I assume to be an expert in why non-magical children are born to magical parents, though this is a particularly rare occurrence.

"So you want Hermione to go to your school and learn how to do magic?" dad asked, trying to grasp onto something he can understand.

"Yes, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is, in my opinion, the best Wizarding School in perhaps even the whole world. If Hermione wants to go, she has a place there," Professor McGonagall replied.

When she said this, I started to picture myself doing magic. I saw myself learning this whole new brand of subjects. I knew immediately why I never fit in at my primary school, it's because I was never meant to attend a school like that. I saw myself reading spellbooks and waving my very own wand, and I saw myself never having to face Nancy Hummel or any of her friends ever again.

Without even realizing I had opened my mouth, I found myself saying "Yes, I want to go to Hogwarts."

Professor McGonagall smiled and pulled an envelope out from underneath her cloak. "Here is your official Hogwarts acceptance letter," she said, handing it to me. I ripped it open, eager to read it.

_HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY_

_Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore _

_(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)_

_Dear Ms. Granger._

_We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Minerva McGonagall_

_Deputy Headmistress_

So Professor McGonagall was the Deputy Headmistress. I supposed that was why she was the one who came to explain everything to us. I read the letter over again.

"What does it mean by 'we await your owl'?" I asked.

"You do not have to worry about that part. I will be returning to Hogwarts myself shortly and I will inform the Headmaster that you intend to attend. Owl post is the way witches and wizards normally communicate with each other, you see," she replied.

This brought up another question I had. "You said witches and wizards," I said slowly. "Does that mean I'm a witch?"

"Yes," Professor McGonagall said simply.

I looked back at my letter and noticed that it mentioned a booklist that was supposed to be enclosed. I reached back into the envelope and drew it out.

_HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY_

_Uniform_

_First year students will require:_

_Three sets of plain work robes (black)_

_One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear_

_One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)_

_One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)_

_Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags_

_Set Books_

_All students should have a copy of each of the following:_

_The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk_

_A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot_

_Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling_

_A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch_

_One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore_

_Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger_

_Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander_

_The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble_

_Other Equipment_

_1 wand_

_1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)_

_1 set glass or crystal phials_

_1 telescope_

_1 set brass scales_

_Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad_

_PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS_

I looked up from the list of things I would need, "Where am I supposed to buy all of this?" I asked.

"If you aren't busy right now, I can show you," Professor McGonagall said, looking over at mum and dad.

"Well, I suppose we might as well go," mum said. "Let me go get my purse."

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**Alright, so hey guys, that was my first ever chapter in my first ever fanfic. So let me know your thoughts. I love reviews.**


	2. School Supply Shopping

**Alright, so here's the second chapter. I'm posting it after only a day because I'm excited to get started on this story, but that won't happen all the time. I've got one review so far, so thanks to you reviewer:). Let's see if I can get two more reviews and boost that up to three! Anyways, here we go.**

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Chapter 2: School Supply Shopping

Once Professor McGonagall had showed us how to get into Diagon Alley through the Leaky Cauldron and had told us that we could exchange our money for Wizarding money at the bank, Gringotts, she left, saying she had important business to attend to. She also informed me that I would find my train ticket in the envelope my letter had come in and that the train would leave at 11 o'clock on September the first from King's Cross Station.

Diagon Alley was like no place I had ever seen before. There were tons of people walking around wearing cloaks and robes similar to what Professor McGonagall had been wearing. I suddenly felt out of place in my jeans and shirt, though I didn't dwell on it for long, because as we continued walking down the street, I started noticing some other people dressed like me, and I assumed that they also came from non-magical parentage.

Despite my eagerness to start buying books and supplies right away, we had to first exchange our money, so we headed towards the bank. The bank was by far the largest building in all of Diagon Alley, and it was made of white marble with bronze doors. Standing beside the doors, however, was a creature I couldn't identify. It was small, wearing a scarlet and gold uniform and had a pointed beard. When it reached towards the door handles to open it for us, I saw that it had very long fingers. I decided I probably shouldn't think of it as an 'it', and I decided he was definitely a male.

Once we had stepped inside the building, we were facing a second set of doors that had a poem engraved on it:

_Enter stranger, but take heed_

_Of what awaits the sin of greed,_

_For those who take, but do not earn,_

_Must pay most dearly in their turn,_

_So if you seek beneath our floors,_

_A treasure that was never yours,_

_Thief, you have been warned, beware,_

_Of finding more than treasure there._

I shuddered upon reading the last line, wondering what the poem could mean by finding _more_ than treasure there. Another one of the creatures from outside opened these doors for us once we had read the poem and we stepped into the bank. It was a vast hall of marble, with long counters behind which the creatures were sitting on high stools doing various types of work.

Unsure how to proceed, I looked up at dad, "where do we go now?"

He shrugged and looked around. "I suppose we should go up to a counter," he finally replied. So we walking over to the nearest counter and stood before the creature.

The creature raised its head and scrutinized us with its beady eyes before asking what we wanted.

"We want to exchange our money for wizard money," dad said, holding out a fistful of money. The creature raised its arm and with its long fingers, it pointed to a man sitting behind a counter across the hall. He appeared to be the only man who worked here with the creatures.

Dad thanked the creature and we headed over to the man, who appeared much more jovial than the grim-looking creatures.

"How can I help you?" he asked, a smile spreading across his face.

"I'd like to exchange this for some wizard money," dad replied, handing him the cash he had in his hand. The man took it and began counting it out.

"First time in Diagon Alley?" the man asked conversationally.

"Yes," dad replied. "We only just found out today that our little Hermione was a witch," he said, patting me on the back.

The man behind the counter raised his head to look at me and smiled. "Well that's just great news," he said, now counting out some strange-looking coins which I assumed was wizard money. "Alrighty, here we are," he said, handing dad the coins. "The gold coins are called Galleons, the silver ones are called Sickles and the bronze ones are called Knuts," he explained. "Every Galleon is worth seventeen Sickles and every Sickle is worth twenty-nine Knuts."

I wondered why they used such random numbers. Seventeen and twenty-nine didn't really seem to make all that much sense to me. It's almost as if the numbers were pulled out of nowhere.

We thanked the man and he wished us good luck and we left the bank, returning to the busy and crowded street. I immediately became excited as I pulled out my list of required items and started picturing myself buying all the wonderful things on it.

School supply shopping has always been one of my favorite activities. Buying new notebooks and binders and getting a new and clean eraser and knowing that you would soon be filling your notebooks with information and dirtying your eraser by erasing mistakes when taking down notes.

I especially loved buying my schoolbooks. Books are one of the best things in life. You can buy a book and have absolutely no knowledge of whatever is inside, and then you open it up and when you've read it, your mind is filled with all this new knowledge that you never had before.

I pulled out my supply list and checked what the first thing on the list was.

"Alright, the first thing I need is a uniform," I say to mum and dad. "Where do we go for that?"

"I'm not sure, maybe we should ask someone," mum says, looking at dad, who nods. They both appear to be feeling out of place, which makes sense, especially since they aren't even magic.

"Excuse me," dad says to an older lady who was passing by, "we were wondering if you could tell us where we might buy a school uniform for Hogwarts?"

"Oh, are you Muggle-born dear?" the lady asked me. I wasn't sure what that meant, but it didn't matter, because she continued, "Madam Malkin's would be the place to go." She pointed us in the right direction and then hurried along and continued with her own shopping.

We walked in the direction she had indicated and soon came to a shop called _Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions_, which was obviously where the older lady had intended us to go.

We entered and a very nice-looking lady emerged from the back room, smiling and asking if I was here for my Hogwarts robes. I told her I was and she immediately set me up on a footstool and slipped a robe over my head. She started pinning it all over and measuring things, and I just stood there, while mum and dad settled themselves in a pair of chairs next to the mirror.

The lady, who I assumed was Madam Malkin, hummed while she pinned my robes and when she was finished, she took them into the back room, emerging moments later with a bag full with my entire school uniform. Mum and dad paid for the clothes while I pulled out my list again and checked to see what I would need next. There was a whole list of schoolbooks that I was going to need, so before we left, I asked Madam Malkin where I should go to buy my books.

She told me to go to a shop called _Flourish and Blotts_ and told us how to get there. We thanked her and left. When we finally found _Flourish and Blotts_, we entered and I was utterly taken aback. There were hundreds of thousands of books in this shop and the stacks reached all the way up to the ceiling. I walked through the aisles of books and marvelled at all the titles that there were. There were books on every subject I could ever think of. Eventually, I located all the books that were on my list and I also chose a few extras to read for a little background, since I was new to this world, including _Hogwarts: A History_, which I thought I should definitely read, since that was the school I would be attending.

After convincing mum and dad to buy me all the extra books in addition to my set books, we went to get the next item on the list; a wand. We went to a shop called _Ollivanders_. The words on the door indicated that the shop had existed since 382 B.C. which explained why the shop appeared so rundown.

When we entered the shop, an older man appeared from the rows upon rows of shelves all stacked with long and thin boxes.

"Good afternoon," the man said, and I couldn't help but feel a little bit nervous at the way his eyes were shining so brightly despite the darkness and gloom of the shop.

"I'd like to buy a wand," I said.

"Yes, of course. Your first wand, I believe, let me see…" he trailed off at the end of his sentence and walked back into one of the rows of shelves, leaving me and mum and dad alone in the front of the shop.

He returned with a tape measure, which started taking me measurements all by itself, which certainly caught me off guard. While the tape measure measured, he began talking to me about wands. Every one of my wands is unique; you will never find two Ollivanders wands that are exactly the same. Each wand contains a powerful magical substance at its core, such as dragon heartstring, unicorn hair and phoenix tail feathers. You must treat your wand carefully as it will become a part of you.

When it was finished, he took the tape measure back and chose a box from one of the shelves. He placed a box on the counter and opened it as though it was the most delicate thing in the world. He gingerly lifted the wand out of the box and handed it to me.

"Maple and dragon heartstring, seven and three quarter inches, springy," he announced.

I stood with it for a moment, not sure what to do.

"Wave it around now, come on," he said, so I flicked the wand in the air, but no sooner had I tried it, it had been snatched out of my hand.

He chose a new wand and handed it to me.

"Beechwood and unicorn hair, eleven and a half inches, supple," he said.

I began to wave it, but it too was snatched out of my hand.

"Aha!" he said, upon choosing a third wand. "Vine wood and dragon heartstring, ten and three quarter inches, nice and flexible," he told me. When he handed it to me immediate warmth spread through my fingers and into my body. I saw red sparks shoot out the end of the wand, and smiled for the first time since I had entered the shop, clapping his hands together.

"And there you are young miss," he said, taking the wand back and packaging it in the box. "You very own wand."

After mum and dad paid for the wand we went back out to Diagon Alley to buy the rest of the things I would need for school, and when we were done with that, we headed back home through the Leaky Cauldron.


	3. Will it be enough?

**Hey guys. Thanks to the two reviewers who reviewed and got me up to three reviews! I did seriously consider making this chapter the King's Cross chapter, but I ultimately decided that I wanted to include this before she leaves for school. Please review and let me know your thoughts! I've got so many people reading this story, I'd love to hear what you all think. Alright, so here's the third chapter:**

Chapter 3: Will it be enough?

I only had two days left before I was going to be leaving for Hogwarts. I had, of course, read through all the books that had been assigned for this year, and I had read all the extra books that I had convinced mum and dad to buy for me. I had started working on some of the spells that were in _The Standard Book of Spells: Grade 1_ and I had managed to work a few of them.

I was currently trying to master the spell Professor McGonagall had done when she came to explain everything, _wingardium leviosa_. It was supposed to be a levitation charm, but so far all I had been able to do was make my quill twitch. I was feeling very discouraged. I'm sure all the other students from magical families would already know how to levitate, I mean, its right at the beginning of _The Standard Book of Spells_, which must mean that it's the easiest one, and I couldn't even do that.

I pulled the spellbook closer to me at my desk and read the section again. I decided that my pronunciation must be the problem, so I started emphasizing different syllables to see if that would work. On my seventh try, the quill finally started to rise off my desk. In my excitement, I lost my concentration and the quill fell. I immediately grabbed it and dipped it in some ink and marked the correct pronunciation in my book. After a few more practices, I was able to fly my quill around the room, and I smiled to myself, glad that I was finally successful.

"Hermione, it's time for dinner," mum called from downstairs. I put my wand on my desk and headed downstairs to eat. I hadn't realized how late it was, I felt like I woke up only minutes ago.

"How was your day dear?" dad asked as he set dinner on the table. Mum and dad are dentists, and they work during the week, so I usually spend my days home alone during the summer. That's why I had so much time to read.

"Pretty good," I replied. "I mastered the levitation charm."

"That's wonderful news dear," dad said. We lapsed into a temporary silence broken only when mum came bustling into the dining room with the potatoes. Mum and dad are having a bit of a hard time adjusting to me being a witch. I offered for them to read some of the books I had bought, but that seemed to make them even more uncomfortable. I had hoped they would adjust in the last month, but they hadn't.

"Hi honey!" mum said sitting down at the table, and starting to fill her plate. "How are you?" she asked. I noticed that this question was quite different from dad's _how was your day?_ She didn't want to hear more facts about goblin rebellions I had read in my history book or about when dragon breeding was outlawed, and especially not that I had finally been successful in levitating my quill.

"I'm great mum," I replied, filling my own plate. As sad as I was feeling that they were uncomfortable with this whole thing, I was sure that they would be much more open to everything after they had sat with it for a little while.

"What are your plans for tomorrow?" dad finally asked. Mum and dad work weekends as well as weekdays and tomorrow was no different. They had decided to take Sunday off so that they could accompany me to King's Cross and see me off to school.

"I was going to pack my things and maybe practice a little bit more before I get to Hogwarts," I said honestly, even though I knew they wished I would have left out the last part. Don't get me wrong, I know they love me more than anything; they're just having some trouble adjusting.

"How about we go out to dinner tomorrow night?" mum asked. "You know, before you go away to school."

"That would be great," I replied, smiling. At least they would be able to spend a little bit of time with me before I left.

When it was time for dessert, mum brought out a nice big bowl of fresh fruit. Begin dentists, mum and dad didn't believe in sugary desserts, or candy, or anything sweet really. I had never been trick-or-treating. We never had any of the usual sweets in the house. They even bought me sugarless gum. Not that I'm complaining, especially since it's not like I really even miss it since I never had it.

After dessert, I went back up to my room while mum and dad went to work on some paperwork they had brought home from work. They always bring their paperwork home with them.

When I got back to my room, I opened _The Standard Book of Spells_ again and read up on the unlocking spell again. Once I felt I was ready to try it out, I walked over to my door and locked it manually; the locking spell wasn't in _The Standard Book of Spells_, so I assumed it was more advanced. I pointed my wand at the door and visualized the door unlocking.

"_Alohomora_," I said clearly, and with a click, the lock flung back into the unlocked position. My face broke out into a wide grin. I got it on my first try! I practiced it a few more times before I finally decided to take a break from spell-casting.

I decided to start packing my trunk, since there was plenty I would not need from now until I got to Hogwarts. My cauldron, being the largest thing I had to get into my trunk, was the first thing I put in. Then I packed most of my books, keeping _The Standard Book of Spells _and _Hogwarts: A History_ out, knowing I would be using them tomorrow. Then I packed my parchment and my quills and my other supplies. I started to run out of room in my trunk, so I began piling my clothes into my cauldron.

Sooner than I would have thought, I was all packed, and I realized that I no longer had an activity for tomorrow, but I didn't worry. There were plenty more spells I could learn tomorrow. I was starting to feel a little tired, so I decided it was time for bed. I put on my pyjamas and crept downstairs to say goodnight to mum and dad. They were sitting at their desks, which were placed side by side, working on their paperwork.

"Goodnight mum, dad," I said from the doorway. I walked into the room and hugged them each in turn.

"Goodnight sweetheart," I heard mum say as I was leaving the room.

I went back upstairs to my room and climbed into bed. I pulled _Hogwarts: A History_ into my lap and opened it up and began to read. I can't fall asleep if I don't read right beforehand. Somehow, reading seems to have a calming effect on me. Well, it always has until now. As I read on and on, the words I had already read through twice before, I became more and more panicked. There was so much to know. How was I going to measure up to witches and wizards who've been practicing magic since they were born?

I've always been the smart one, top of the class. What would I be when I got to Hogwarts? Surely having only found out about the wizarding world a month ago I would seem utterly dumb next to all the other students. As I frantically re-read the pages of _Hogwarts: A History_ I tried to memorize everything I read so that I wouldn't forget a thing.

When my head finally felt like it was going to fall off from too much thinking I put my book down on my nightstand and laid down properly, shutting my eyes and willing myself to fall asleep.

I promised myself that tomorrow I would practice the charm that could fix broken objects and the charm that would light something on fire. I thought that maybe I should even try learning a little bit of basic transfiguration, even though it appeared to be a particularly difficult subject.

As I went over my knowledge of the medieval witch burnings in my head, I became more and more worried. What if I didn't know enough? What if I hadn't learned enough magic? What if the other students laughed at me for being dumb? What if I walked into potions and blew up my cauldron, or worse, someone else's? It was the first time I had ever felt like this and as I drifted further and further into sleep, I just couldn't help repeating over and over in my head; will everything I've done be enough?


	4. Going on an Adventure

**Alright then, so I'm still posting really close together, but I'm out of school now and I'm bored. When I start doing things my posts will get more spaced out. Yup, so here's the fourth chapter. Please please please review!**

Chapter 4: Going on an Adventure

The time was finally here. I was about to go to Hogwarts. I was going to leave my parents and my house and my room and go to a place I had only read about that I didn't even know existed until a month ago. I was in the backseat of the car while mum and dad drove me to the train station. Well, dad was driving, but mum was in the passenger seat.

We pulled into the parking lot outside of King's Cross Station and climbed out of the car. Dad opened the trunk or the car and heaved my trunk out. It was extra heavy because of all the extra books I had bought. I was wearing my regular clothes, but I planned on changing into my robes as soon as I got onto the train.

"Do you have your ticket?" mum asked me, realizing she hadn't checked before we left the house.

I pulled my envelope out of my pocket and withdrew the ticket. I hadn't really given it much thought until now.

"What platform are we going to?" dad asked.

"Um…" I said, frowning at the ticket. Surely, there must be some kind of mistake. I must need my eyes checked; I was reading platform nine and three-quarters. I handed it to dad to read, hoping I was just hallucinating.

"Platform nine and three quarters?" he says half-statement and half-question. "Where's that supposed to be?"

"I don't know, but maybe we could ask someone," mum says, frowning a bit. None of us had ever heard of platform nine and three quarters. We entered King's Cross and rolled my trunk towards platforms nine and ten. We looked around and didn't see anything that resembled a nine and three quarters. Despite the early hour of our departure, it was getting dangerously close to eleven o'clock and I was starting to panic.

Mum steered us towards a guard and asked where we could find platform nine and three quarters, but he looked just as confused at that question as we felt, stating that there was no such thing. I asked if he knew of any train leaving at eleven o'clock, thinking that maybe the platform number was simply wrong, but at this the guard sighed in exasperation.

"I suppose you're trying to get to Hogwarts?" he asked, causing my heart to lift, believing that he knew where the train was. "Why does everyone want to waste my time today? Skinny little boy with dark messy hair just asked me the same question not five minutes ago." The guard walking away, shaking his head and I started to panic again.

I turned around and looked to see if maybe I would see something I missed previously, when suddenly, a girl who was leaning against the divide between platforms nine and ten disappeared _into_ the wall.

"Mum! Dad! Did you see that?" I asked excitedly, running over to the divide.

"No, see what?" dad asked, confused.

"A girl just disappeared here," I said, standing in the same place she had been moments before. When nothing happened, I leaned against the wall like she had, and instead of meeting the resistance of the wall, I fell right through it onto the floor.

As soon as I had fallen, I scrambled up from the floor and looked around. I was on a new platform, and the sign above indicated that it was platform nine and three quarters. Mum and dad came stumbling through the wall moments later, looking around in awe. I checked my watch and saw that I had only minutes left before I had to board the scarlet steam engine sitting in front of me blowing steam.

"Mum, dad…" I began, unsure how to finish that statement. "Bye," I finally said.

"Oh, goodbye sweetheart," mum said, pulling me into a hug. When she released me, dad gave me a hug as well, and then mum insisted on hugging me again.

"I promise I'll write to you," I said, knowing that they would probably have trouble adjusting to my letters being delivered my owls.

"And we'll write to you as well dear, just as soon as you send us an address we can reach you at," dad added, and I grimaced to myself, knowing that they would probably not be impressed when they couldn't use the regular post.

"I guess I'd better get onto the train," I said finally, realizing that I was going to miss it. To reinforce my point, the train's warning horn blew, indicating it would be leaving in a minute.

Mum and dad followed me to the door of the train and helped me heave my trunk onto the landing. I jumped back off the train and hugged them each again. Then I climbed back onto the train and waved goodbye as the train pulled out of the station.

When I could no longer see them anymore, I turned toward the hallway of compartments and my stomach filled with butterflies. As nervous as I was, I decided to swallow my fear and I straightened up and dragged my trunk down the hall, peering into the compartments, trying to find one that had room for me.

I finally came across a compartment that appeared to be filled with other first years, so I decided this would be the compartment to sit in. I opened the compartment door and asked if I could join them.

Of course, they said that was fine, so I heaved my trunk onto the rack above our heads with the help of a boy who introduced himself as Ernie Macmillan and sat down by the door. There were three other people in our compartment, Ernie, a boy named Neville Longbottom, and a girl named Lisa Turpin.

I discovered that all three of them came from magical families, but much to my surprise, none of them had learned to do any spells. In fact, Neville appeared terrified at the thought of trying to do magic at all. Lisa informed me that she had read some of the spellbooks we had been assigned, but that she hadn't managed to finish them. Ernie appeared more interested in playing gobstones than anything else. When I revealed that I had read all the books we had been set and that I had been practicing some of the spells successfully on my own, Lisa immediately announced that I must be headed for Ravenclaw, the house that she was apparently hoping to end up in.

As great as I thought it would be to be recognized for my brains and be in Ravenclaw, I couldn't help but think that I would actually rather be sorted into Gryffindor. Gryffindor was the house for the brave and the noble and from what I've read, it appeared to produce the best witches and wizards. I didn't say any of this to Lisa, but instead I smiled and asked the two boys what house they were hoping to be sorted into.

Neville's face suddenly turned downcast. "I'd like to be put in Gryffindor, though I'll probably end up in Hufflepuff," he said sadly.

"Are you trying to imply something about Hufflepuffs?" Ernie asked, apparently offended.

"N-no, why?" Neville asked, suddenly extremely nervous.

"I'll have you know that all the members of my family have been Hufflepuffs for generations and I hope to uphold the noble family tradition of being placed in the house of loyalty," he said. "I think I'm going to go find someone who appreciates Hufflepuff," he announced, standing up and leaving the compartment.

"I d-didn't mean an-anything. R-Really," Neville said, worried and clearly upset.

"Don't worry," Lisa said, "he's such a jerk, and he'll probably end up in Slytherin."

At Lisa's words, I had to try hard not to smile, not wanting to appear as though I approved of insults, knowing that her words were meant as an insult.

We changed into our robes then, using the bathroom down the hall, figuring we ought to be wearing our uniform when we finally got to Hogwarts. I realized that I had no idea what time we would be arriving and Lisa and Neville didn't know either.

After another hour or so, a smiling witch came by their compartment pushing a food trolley and asked if they wanted something to eat. I looked at the candy on the trolley and had no idea what any of it was. I decided to pass on the sweets, partly because I was a little apprehensive about what was on the cart, and partly because I was raised by dentists. Lisa bought something called a licorice wand and Neville bought a chocolate frog.

When Neville opened his chocolate frog, it jumped out at him and he grabbed it and bit its head off as though it was perfectly normal. I hid my surprise and tried to arrange my features so that it seemed that I found this perfectly normal.

I turned and looked out the window and as I watched the countryside fly by, I started to become genuinely excited, the butterflies that had been in the pit of my stomach now almost gone. I was heading towards Hogwarts.


	5. Hogwarts

**Alright, so this chapter is the first one that has dialogue taken directly from the book. I'm going to try to follow what happens in the books as carefully as I can, so I will be taking dialogue directly from them, but of course, there will still be stuff that isn't written in the books. So yes, please review! I feel so lonely over here.**

Chapter 5: Hogwarts

A while later, Neville became aware that he had lost his toad, Trevor, and became extremely panicked. He searching the entirety of our compartment but couldn't find him.

"Oh, Gran's going to kill me," he muttered as he searched his trunk for the eighth time.

"Don't worry Neville, I'll help you find Trevor," I said, feeling that I should help in some way.

"Yeah, and I'll help too," Lisa said.

Neville thanked us and we decided we ought to split up and search the train. Neville went running down to the end of the train, but Lisa and I being a little smarter, decided we should check in each compartment. Lisa went right and I went left and we travelled down the train checking inside each compartment, and asking the people inside if they'd seen Trevor.

I was starting to get discouraged and I was hoping that Lisa had found Trevor, when I met up with Neville, who looked, if it was even possible, sadder than he had before.

I surmised that he had not found Trevor yet, so I encouraged him to come with me and ask around. I approached the next compartment, but Neville tried to stop me. "I've already asked them," he said, though I didn't really pay attention to this. I slid the compartment door open.

"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," I said, vaguely gesturing to Neville, who was standing beside me. Then I noticed that one of the two boys in this compartment had his wand raised and I surmised that he was about to perform a spell of some sort.

"We've already told him we haven't seen it," the boy with the wand said, but I disregarded this comment, more interested in seeing if he could perform spells better than I could.

"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then." I said, trying to seem nonchalant about it, though I was actually a little worrying that he might be better than me. I sat in the seat across from him and waited, expectantly. The boy had red hair and lots of freckles, and I noticed that there was lots of candy on the seat next to him, so I decided that he was probably one of those kids that never stops eating.

"Er – all right," the boy said, and he cleared his throat. "Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, turn this silly, fat rat yellow." The boy waved his wand over the rat in his lap, but nothing happened. I immediately felt much better. This boy clearly had no idea what he was doing. I suddenly felt the need to show off.

"Are you sure that's a real spell?" I said. "Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells, just for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard – I've learnt all our set books off by heart, or course, I just hope it will be enough – I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?" I finally asked. I was pleased by the stunned looks on both boys faces when I said all this. I took pride in being the best prepared.

"I'm Ron Weasley," the boy in front of me with the red hair muttered.

I turned to look at the other boy for the first time. "Harry Potter," the boy said, and I suddenly perked up, excited. I knew about Harry Potter, he had been in some of the extra books I had bought.

"Are you really?" I asked, trying to see the scar he presumably had on his forehead, but his hair fell over his forehead, hiding it. "I know all about you, of course – I got a few extra books for background reading, and you're in _Modern Magical History _and _The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts _and _Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century_."

"Am I?" Harry said, apparently unaware of all this. I wondered why he appeared to have no idea about any of this.

"Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if it was me," I said. Then I moved onto a new topic. "Do either of you know what house you'll be in? I've been asking around and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best, I hear Dumbledore himself was one, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad…" I said, thinking of Lisa. "Anyway, we'd better go and look for Neville's toad," I said, finally remembering Neville at the thought of Lisa. "You two had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon." I made this last comment purely for their benefit, figuring that it would be extremely embarrassing for them to walk into Hogwarts in street clothes.

Neville and I returned to our compartment, where Lisa already was, none of us having found Trevor. Neville seemed disappointed, but he seemed to have come to terms with the loss of his toad. Or maybe he was just trying to hide his sadness.

* * *

When the train slowly came to a stop at the station, the train hallway became filled with students all trying to get off the train.

When I finally got off the train and onto the platform, I heard someone bellowing "Firs' years! Firs' years over here!"

Lisa, Neville and I made our way towards the voice and found that it belonged to a very large man who was clearly something more than human.

"C'mon, follow me – any more firs' years? Mind yer step now! Firs' years follow me!" the large man called out.

We all followed the man down a narrow path. I found it difficult not to trip and stumble, it was so dark all around and the path was so steep. I heard Neville sniffle beside me, and I knew he wasn't over the toad yet.

"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," the large man called out over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here."

Suddenly, the path opened up on the edge of a great lake and all the first years, myself included, let out a loud 'Oooooh!' Across the lake, sitting on a high mountain was Hogwarts, a vast castle, with turrets and towers, the windows lit brightly and invitingly.

"No more'n four to a boat!" the man called out, indicating a whole bunch of boats sitting in the water. I eagerly climbed into a boat behind Harry and Ron from the compartment earlier. Neville climbed in after me, but Lisa had to take a different boat because ours was full.

"Everyone in?" the man shouted out. "Right then – FORWARD!"

The boats all started to move of their own accord, pushing us all through the water towards the great magnificent castle looming over us. As we approached, the man called out again "Heads down!" I ducked my head, and just in time, because the boats had reached the cliff and we had been carried through an opening in the cliff face through a dark tunnel. The tunnel finally came out to some kind of harbour, where we all got out of our boats and stepped onto the shore.

"Oy, you there! Is this your toad?" the large man said, turning to Neville.

"Trevor!" Neville cried, his voice filled with joy. He held out his hands for his toad and I smiled when I saw how happy he looked.

We headed up a passageway, following the man, who had a large lamp, which seemed to be the only source of light. We finally reached the grass beside the castle and walked up the stone steps to the front doors.

"Everyone here? You there, still got your toad?" the man asked. Neville nodded enthusiastically. I noticed he appeared to be squishing his toad in an attempt not to let go.

The man raised his fist and knocked on the door three times.


	6. My New Home

**Hey, so thanks to my one reviewer for my last chapter! Finally having a review was very exciting, so let's try and get a few more this chapter. There's a significant amount of dialogue taken from the book, but I feel that it's more realistic if I do that. So here's chapter 6:**

Chapter 6: My new home

The doors immediately swung open to reveal Professor McGonagall standing in the entrance, wearing either the exact same dark green cloak as she wore when she visited in the summer, or an identical one.

"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," said the large man.

"Thank you Hagrid. I will take them from here," Professor McGonagall answered him. She pulled the door open more so that we could all get through and I stepped forward into the entrance hall of my new school. The room was all stone and there were torches on the walls that provided light for the room. I could see a marble staircase leading out of the hall that presumably led to the rest of the castle.

Professor McGonagall led us all across the floor and into a small room off to the side. We all crammed in; though I'm sure we could have fit more comfortably if people weren't all squishing each other to get a better view. I could hear a fairly loud hum of voices, so I assumed the rest of the school was already assembled in another room, probably the Great Hall based on what I'd read in _Hogwarts: A History_.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall as everyone stopped looking around and began to pay close attention. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because…" the rest of Professor McGonagall's speech was pretty repetitive for me since I had already read about the houses in _Hogwarts: A History_.

When Professor McGonagall finished explaining, she left and told us she would be returning shortly to bring us to the ceremony.

"How exactly do they sort us into houses?" I heard Harry Potter asking his friend, Ron, who were standing only a little way away from me.

"Some sort of test, I think. Fred said it hurts a lot, but I think he was joking," Ron replied. I rolled my eyes at them, though they didn't see me. It seems as though nobody here knows as much as I thought they would. In _Hogwarts: A History_, it explains all about the Sorting ceremony and it definitely doesn't hurt.

About thirty seconds later, someone called out, "What the – ?"

I turned and saw the Hogwarts ghosts drifting into the room. Everyone seemed quite shocked, and I rolled my eyes again. I'd read about the ghosts of course, though it was quite fascinating to actually see them up close.

They appeared to be arguing about something, but I couldn't quite catch their conversation until one called out "I say, what are you all doing here?"

I was about to answer when another ghost replied, "New students! About to be Sorted, I suppose?"

I decided to nod rather than answer aloud, since nobody else was saying anything. A noticed a few other students nodding with me.

"Move along now," said Professor McGonagall as she reappeared in the room. When the ghosts had left, she instructed us to form a line and follow her into the Great Hall. I found myself directly behind Neville.

As we entered the Great Hall, I looked around for all the things that I had remembered from reading _Hogwarts: A History_. There were the four long house tables, the floating candles that illuminated the vast Hall, even the ceiling was the way the book had described it. When I noticed Neville looking up at the ceiling in awe, I whispered to him, "It's bewitched to look like the sky outside, I read about it in _Hogwarts: A History_.

As we all assembled at the front of the Hall, I saw Professor McGonagall preparing the Sorting Hat on a four-legged stool. I remembered from my reading that the hat traditionally sang a song before the Sorting, so I waited expectantly.

_"Oh you may not think I'm pretty,_

_But don't judge on what you see, _

_I'll eat myself if you can find_

_A smarter hat than me._

The hat went on to explain the various qualities associated with each house and when it finished it's song, the whole hall burst into applause. Professor McGonagall came forward again, now with a roll of parchment, and I became nervous again.

"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said. She then called the first girl, Hannah Abbott, who became a Hufflepuff. As the names were called and it got dangerously close to the G's, my stomach started to clench and even though I'd had nothing to eat since breakfast, I felt like I might be sick.

When Anthony Goldstein was sorted into Ravenclaw, I panicked because I thought I would be next, but someone named Gregory Goyle was called before me and I had a minute to compose myself before the Sorting Hat cried out "SLYTHERIN" and Professor McGonagall called my name.

I told myself to relax as I ran up the steps to the stool and put the hat over my head. I wanted to get this done right away before I lost my nerve. There was silence for a moment and then I heard a small voice in my ear. "Interesting, interesting, plenty of brains that's obvious, yes, a sure sign of a Ravenclaw, but what's this? I see there's bravery here and definitely the makings of a fine young Gryffindor, but Ravenclaw could really use a mind like this one." I smiled under the hat as it praised my mind. I always liked it when my brain was recognized as a quality rather than made a mockery of. The hat noticed my sudden rush of pride and it made a note that pride was certainly a Gryffindor quality. "Alright then, I suppose you ought to be in – GRYFFINDOR!" the hat finally called out to the entire hall. I jumped off the stool and handed the hat to the next student to be sorted – Daphne Greengrass, and I went to sit at the applauding Gryffindor table. I watched merrily as Neville became a Gryffindor as well, and though he forgot to remove the Sorting Hat before he came to sit down, I didn't laugh, put congratulated him when he finally sat down at the table next to me. Ernie Macmillan, the boy I had met at the beginning of the train ride became a Hufflepuff just as he'd wished.

When Harry Potter's name was called, the tension in the hall became tangible. I suppose everyone was eager for him to end up in their house because of his fame. The hat took a significantly long time deciding where to place him, but it finally shouted "GRYFFINDOR!" and the whole table burst into the loudest applause anyone had yet received.

When Lisa's turn came, I sat up a little straighter and when she was announced to be a Ravenclaw, I clapped along with the Ravenclaw table and tried to catch her eye to smile, but she didn't turn my way. After Lisa, the other boy from the train, Ron, was sorted into Gryffindor, and then the last boy, Blaise Zabini, was sent to Slytherin.

When the Sorting was over, Professor McGonagall removed the hat and the stool from the front of the hall and a man who I recognized as the Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, stood and opened his arms to address the students. I recognized him because his picture was in a few of the books I had read over the summer.

"Welcome!" he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Oddment! Blubber! Tweak! Thank you!"

As the room was filled with cheers and applause, I wondered whether the headmaster was perfectly sane. From what I had read about him, he was supposed to be a genius and the wisest and smartest wizard in the world, but that didn't seem like the kind of speech I would expect from a genius.

Suddenly, all the empty plates and bowls sitting in front of me were filled with food, by magic of course, and everyone began to eat. I helped myself to some roast beef and potatoes and made sure to take peas and carrots, because mum and dad would want me to eat my vegetables. The older boy next to me introduced himself as Percy Weasley (I wondered if he was related to Ron since they had the last surname and both had red hair, but I didn't ask). He informed me that he was a prefect, so I decided he was responsible and I started to talk to him about classes.

"Potions should be very interesting," I said to Percy.

"Oh yes, Professor Snape teaches potions. He's a great teacher, but a little surly. He wants the Defense Against the Dark Arts post pretty badly," Percy replied.

"And I've been practicing a few basic charms, but I don't believe I've gotten very far," I continued. "I _do_ hope they start straight away, there's so much to learn, I'm particularly interested in Transfiguration, you know, turning something into something else, of course, it's supposed to be very difficult –"

"You'll be starting small, just matches into needles and that sort of thing – "Percy reassured me.

Before I could respond, Harry Potter clapped a hand to his forehead and cried "Ouch!"

"What is it?" Percy asked him, concerned.

"N-nothing," Harry said. Harry and Percy then began to discuss a couple of the Professors and I started to become tired after such a long day.

When dinner was over, the Headmaster got up again to address the students.

"Ahem – just a few more words now we are all fed and watered. I have a few start of term notices to give you. First years should note that the forest in the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few older students would do well to remember that as well. I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors," he said. I noticed that many students weren't paying attention, but I made sure to listen to every word so that I would be sure never to break any rules.

"Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch. And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death." At this a few students laughed, but I didn't think the Headmaster was joking. Professors don't joke about serious things like that. I made a mental note to figure out where the third floor corridor was so that I could avoid it.

"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" Dumbledore cried, and with a flick of his wand, the words to the song were displayed by a long ribbon hanging in the air. Everybody sang the song to the tune of their choice. I thought it was rather silly and did not join in. By the end of the song, only two students were still singing from a little way down the Gryffindor table. They were singing to a slow and sad song, like a funeral march. When they finally finished, the Headmaster dismissed us and Percy, being a prefect, led the first years through the castle to the dormitories.

When we finally reached the dormitories, Percy gave the password to the portrait of a relatively overweight lady wearing a pink dress. The portrait swung open to reveal the common room – which was filled with armchairs and tables and had a lovely couch by the fire. Everything was decorated in scarlet and gold, those begin the Gryffindor colors.

Percy told us that the girl's dormitories were through the door on the left, so I followed the other girls through it and up a spiral staircase into a room with a plaque on it reading _First Years_. The dormitory was a circular room with five four-poster beds that had deep scarlet curtains hanging from them. I found that my trunk was already at the foot of my bed, so I went right to that bed and sat down, very tired. While the other girls all started talking and introducing each other, I got dressed in my pyjamas and went straight to bed.


	7. Classes Begin

**Thanks to my reviewer on the last chapter, I love knowing I'm not alone with this story. Really, thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far, getting your reviews really do make my day. You guys should see the huge smile on my face when I read them. Here's the next chapter, I have, of course, taken dialogue directly out of the book, but there is still plenty of my own stuff in it. And here it is:**

Chapter 7: Classes Begin

When I woke up the next morning, there was only one other girl still in the dormitory. She introduced herself as Lavender Brown. She told me that two of the other girls in our dorm, Sally-Anne Perks and Lily Moon, had woken up very early and left right away.

I asked about the last girl, since there were five girls sleeping in our dorm, and Lavender told me she was just in the bathroom. I began to gather my things and I got ready for the day. When the last girl, Parvati Patil, emerged from the bathroom, she said hi, and then she and Lavender left for breakfast, leaving me alone in the dorm. I didn't really mind though, I'm used to being alone.

Once I was ready and had piled all my books into my bag, I headed down to the Great Hall. I still hadn't received my timetable, so I wasn't sure what I would need today, so I decided to bring everything. My bag was pretty heavy.

When I got to the Great Hall, I sat down next to Neville, who was looking pretty lonely, since the other first year Gryffindor boys were all talking together a little way down the table.

"Are you excited to be starting classes?" I asked him. I certainly was. I was very much looking forward to learning about magic and everything.

Neville, on the other hand, did not appear to be looking forward to classes at all. "No, not at all," he replied. "I'm going to be rubbish, I'm sure of it."

I tried to cheer Neville up by telling him he would do great, but I don't think I did a very good job. Once breakfast was over, Professor McGonagall came around and handed out our timetables. I glanced at it quickly to see where I would be going and saw that my first class was History of Magic. Since I didn't yet know my way around the castle, I found a prefect and asked her where the classroom was. She gave me some directions, and after thanking her, I led Neville out of the Great Hall to go to class.

History of Magic turned out to be quite interesting. I had already read the whole textbook, but Professor Binns provided details that weren't actually in the book. I made sure to copy down very thorough notes since I was sure I wouldn't remember everything by the end of the year when I would have to write an exam. I noticed that I was the only one taking notes, and I sighed to myself. I suppose if the entire rest of the class wanted to fail that was their own choice.

After History of Magic, we had Herbology, which was in the greenhouses. I followed my classmates in the hopes that they knew where they were going, since I didn't see a prefect anywhere around. Neville actually enjoyed Herbology, and I actually saw him smile, something I hadn't seen yet all day.

After Herbology, it was time for lunch so we all returned to the Great Hall. I decided I wanted to try to make some friends, I couldn't hang out with only Neville forever, and it seemed that Lisa would be making friends in Ravenclaw. I sat next to Lavender, who was in deep conversation with Parvati across the table. Two of Neville's dorm mates, Dean and Seamus, ended up sitting on my other side. I tried to talk with Lavender and Parvati, but they didn't seem interested in what I was trying to tell them about my reading of _Hogwarts: A History_, so I turned and tried talking with Dean and Seamus, but they were talking to Harry and Ron on their other side about Quidditch. I had read about Quidditch and it didn't really interest me. I never liked Muggle sports, so I don't see why I would like wizard sports. I much prefer studying and learning.

After lunch was Transfiguration. Professor McGonagall taught Transfiguration and it was the first class where we actually got to try casting spells. We were supposed to be turning a match into a needle. I hadn't practiced this at home, but about halfway through the class I was successful and Professor McGonagall showed the whole class. Nobody else had been able to do the transfiguration so I smiled smugly, glad to be back in my element, which was doing well in school.

After Transfiguration was Charms. We didn't actually do any spells; Professor Flitwick simply began to explain the theory that was in_ The Standard Book of Spells._

The rest of the week progressed much in the same fashion. I was appalled to see how far behind everyone was compared to me. By Friday, the only class I had not yet had was Potions. After breakfast, I followed some other first years out of the hall and down to the dungeons, where Potions class was held. Once Professor Snape had finished taking the register, he began to explain about Potions. When he finished his speech, he added "if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach." I was ready to start brewing potions right then. I wanted him to know I wasn't a dunderhead. I wanted to prove myself.

Then, suddenly, he snapped, "Potter! What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" I of course, knew the answer. They make a sleeping potion so powerful it's called the Draught of Living Death. It's supposed to be a very advanced potion. I immediately raised my hand. This was my chance to prove I knew something.

Harry replied that he didn't know, so Professor Snape asked a new question, "Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?" I knew this one too; bezoars come from the stomachs of goats. I wanted very much for Professor Snape to call on me, so I stretched my hand as far as I could.

Again, Harry didn't know, and Professor Snape continued to ignore me. He asked a third question. "What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?" he asked. This was my very favorite kind of question. It was a trick question; monkshood and wolfsbane were the same thing and sometimes it was also called aconite. I so badly wanted to answer this question; I stood up and stretched my hand as high as I could, hoping that maybe he would finally ask me.

"I don't know," Harry said. "I think Hermione does though, why don't you ask her?" My heart leapt, I thought I would be able to show my knowledge, but Professor Snape was not pleased.

"Sit down," he snapped at me. Then he proceeded to give the correct answers. As I sat, and I saw people laughing at me, I could feel my face growing hot and knew I was turning very red. I hid my face for the rest of the lesson and tried to keep a low profile. I didn't feel like Professor Snape liked me very much.

* * *

Flying lessons began the next week. I had read a book on flying called _Quidditch through the Ages_, so I knew all the theory, but I was still nervous. I'm not very good at physical activities and that was exactly what flying is. I tried to hide my nervousness, but I don't think I was very successful. At breakfast that day I told anyone who would listen about all the flying tips I had read about. Neville seemed quite interested, but I don't think anyone else was.

After breakfast, we all headed down to the grounds, where the Slytherins were all waiting for us. When the teacher, Madam Hooch arrived, she instructed us to choose a broom and put our arm out over it and say 'up'. I tried, but the broom didn't seem to want to move. It rolled over a bit, so at least it was moving. I noticed that Neville's broom wasn't moving at all, so I felt a little better, but when I saw that Harry's broom was already in his hand, I felt a little jealous.

When I finally got a hold of my broom, and everyone else had too, Madam Hooch showed up how to mount it and then she came up and down and checked everyone individually. She showed me how to properly grip the broom and told me I had to hold on a little tighter and that a loose grip was evidence of a lack of confidence. I immediately tightened my grip, not wanting to appear a coward.

Then Madam Hooch explained the first drill and prepared to blow her whistle, but Neville began to rise off the ground before she was ready. It appeared that he didn't know what he was doing as his broom rose quite high and then he loosened his grip and slipped right off the broom, landing with a thud on the ground.

I was quite worried, but Madam Hooch was already bending over him, so I watched and hoped he was alright. Then Madam Hooch got him up and informed us that she would be taking Neville to the hospital wing. She told us not to leave the ground while she was gone.

As soon as she had left, the Slytherins started insulting Neville and some of the Gryffindors began to defend him. I don't like these kinds of confrontations, so I remained silent. Then one of the Slytherins, Malfoy, took the Remembrall Neville had received from his grandmother at breakfast and flew off with it.

Harry prepared to go after him, but I remembered that we weren't supposed to be flying. I didn't want him to get into trouble, so I stopped him and said, "No! Madam Hooch told us not to move – you'll get us all into trouble." Harry ignored me though, and flew into the air.

I couldn't hear what happened, but soon Malfoy had thrown the Remembrall and Harry was flying after it and he caught it. He landed and almost immediately, Professor McGonagall was calling him and she appeared furious. She escorted him back to the castle, and I figured he was going to get a detention or something. Serves him right for breaking the rules, I thought.

When Madam Hooch returned, she continued the lesson for the rest of us. I had difficulty getting into the air, but once I was there, I realized that I very much preferred to keep my feet on the ground. I decided that flying was definitely not my thing. When the lesson was finally over, we all returned to the castle.


	8. Breaking the Rules

**Alright, so it's been a bit longer than usual for this post, but here's chapter 8. I have, of course, stolen dialogue from the book itself. Please review.**

Chapter 8: Breaking the Rules

At dinner later, Neville still wasn't back from the hospital wing. I was sure that Madam Pomfrey would fix him up fine though, so I didn't worry. I sat next to Harry and Ron, but they were talking in hushed voices. I understood from their conversation that Harry was not going to be punished for flying, though I didn't hear why. I wasn't overly happy that he wouldn't be getting in trouble. Rules are set in place or reasons and if he's not punished, he'll never learn.

A group of Slytherins, Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle, came over and started to talk to Harry and Ron. I didn't pay all that much attention at first, because it sounded as though they were only insulting each other, which in my opinion is a waste of time.

Then I heard Malfoy say "I'd take you on any time on my own. Tonight, if you want. Wizard's duel. Wands only – no contact. What's the matter? Never heard of a wizard's duel before, I suppose?"

"Of course he has. I'm his second, who's yours?" Ron replied.

"Crabbe. Midnight all right? We'll meet you in the trophy room, that's always unlocked," Malfoy said. I rolled my eyes to myself. This was so silly. I assumed, of course, that they weren't serious, but then Harry and Ron continued talking.

"What _is_ a wizard's duel? And what do you mean you're my second?" Harry asked Ron.

"Well a second's there to take over if you die, but people only die in proper duels, you know, with real wizards. The most you and Malfoy'll be able to do is send sparks at each other. Neither of you knows enough magic to do any real damage. I bet he expected you to refuse, anyway," Ron explained. I couldn't believe it! They were actually planning on going to this ridiculous duel!

"And what if I wave my wand and nothing happens?" Harry asked.

"Throw it away and punch him on the nose," Ron replied. At this point, I had to speak up. I know for a fact that it's against the rules to go wandering around at night, and I certainly didn't think it wise for them to break more rules. Plus, since they're in Gryffindor, they're actions affect me too. If they keep breaking rules, Gryffindor won't have any points left.

"Excuse me," I said.

They looked up and Ron asked "Can't a person eat in peace in this place?"

I decided to ignore this comment because I didn't really see any reason to go insulting him back. "I couldn't help overhearing what you and Malfoy were saying and you _mustn't_ go wandering around the school at night, think of the points you'll lose for Gryffindor if you're caught, and you're bound to be. It's really very selfish of you," I said to Harry.

"And it's really none of your business," Harry replied.

"Goodbye," Ron added as they got up and left the table. I'll admit, it hurt a bit that they didn't even seem to care about what I had to say, but I certainly wasn't just going to let them go breaking rules.

That night, I remained in the common room long past everyone else had gone to bed. I knew Harry and Ron would be coming down here and I had to try to convince them not to go. I was going to tell on them, but then I decided that then I would seem like a snitch, so I didn't. I was sitting in a armchair near the portrait hole, working on my transfiguration homework, when I heard them sneaking through the common room.

"I can't believe you're going to do this, Harry," I said right before they reached the portrait hole. I reached over and turned on the lamp beside me so that they could see me.

"You! Go back to bed," Ron said angrily.

"I almost told your brother, Percy – he's a prefect, he'd put a stop to this," I said threateningly, hoping they would not go so I wouldn't tell. I hated sounding like a tattletale.

"Come on," Harry said, heading right through the portrait hole. I couldn't believe they were just ignoring me. I followed them out to try again.

"Don't you _care_ about Gryffindor, do you _only_ care about yourselves, _I_ don't want Slytherin to win the house cup and you'll lose all the points I got from Professor McGonagall for knowing about Switching Spells," I said.

"Go away," Ron said. I gave up. Clearly they cared nothing for anything, they just wanted to be silly and go duel Malfoy for no reason.

"All right, but I warned you, you just remember what I said when you're on the train home tomorrow, you're so –" I had turned to the portrait of the Fat Lady to return to the common room, but the Fat Lady wasn't in the portrait anymore. I couldn't get back into the tower.

"Now what am I going to do?" I cried. I couldn't be caught outside of Gryffindor tower, and then I'd be in trouble.

"That's your problem. We've got to go, we're going to be late," Ron replied, and they headed away towards the trophy room. I decided the best thing to do would be to go with Harry and Ron, since that way I'm not standing around in the hallway like bait on a hook for Filch to find me.

"I'm coming with you," I announced. Harry and Ron protested; I had expected this. Obviously they weren't very happy with me for trying to dissuade them and threatening to tattle. Then Harry heard a noise, but it turned out to be Neville. He had forgotten the password when he came back from the hospital wing and he had been sleeping outside all night. When Harry and Ron tried to leave, Neville asked to go with them too.

"If either of you get us caught, I'll never rest until I've learnt that Curse of Bogies Quirrell told us about and used it on you," Ron said angrily. I was going to tell him that wouldn't matter, because I know the counter-curse, but Harry shushed me before I could speak.

When we arrived in the trophy room, nobody was there. I thought it was a little suspicious and then Filch was there, clearly looking for someone. It was obvious that he knew someone would be here tonight and we were cornered. I couldn't believe I had come along. Now I was going to be expelled and I'd only been here for two weeks!

Harry motioned for us to follow him and mouthed 'This way', so we all crept along, trying to keep as silent as possible. Neville, being a very nervous person, let out a nervous squeak and tripped, toppling over on top of a suit of armor and making quite a bit of noise. Knowing Filch would be right behind us, we all broke into a run. Harry was in the lead. I hoped he knew where he was going because I had no idea how we got from the trophy room to the charms corridor in such a short amount of time.

"Malfoy tricked you, you realise that, don't you? He was never going to meet you – Filch knew someone was going to be in the trophy room, Malfoy must have tipped him off," I said, wanting him to realize that I was right all along and he should never have left Gryffindor tower.

He ignored this comment and began to lead us back to the common room, but we ran into Peeves, who started screaming for Filch. We ran to the end of the corridor and came to a locked door. Filch was approaching and there was no other way out.

"We're done for! This is the end!" Ron moaned, pushing against the door.

I realized that I knew how to unlock doors; I had practised in my bedroom over the summer, so I pushed Ron aside and whispered the incantation. Once we were all inside, we shut the door and waited. Filch and Peeves were talking out in the corridor, but Peeves was being very unhelpful. Finally, Filch left, cursing Peeves.

Once Filch had gone, I finally turned around to see where we were. I had assumed we were in an abandoned classroom or something, but we weren't. We were in a corridor, and when I realised where we were, I started panicking again. We were in the third floor corridor, the forbidden corridor. And there was a large three-headed dog standing right in front of us.

My brain immediately started working overtime. As scared as I was, I wondered why there would be a three headed dog locked in a corridor in a school. It must be here for some reason. Harry was fumbling for the door to get us out of there before the dog decided to eat us, which I thought was a very likely possibility and just as I was about to tumble out the door, I saw that the dog was standing on some kind of a trapdoor. Harry slammed the door back shut and we all ran as fast as possible back to Gryffindor tower to get away from the dog.

"What do they think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?" Ron asked once we were safely in the common room. "If any dog needs exercise, that one does."

I rolled my eyes. "You don't use your eyes, any of you, do you? Didn't you see what it was standing on?" I asked. Obviously they don't keep dogs locked in schools for no reason.

"The floor? I wasn't looking at its feet, I was too busy with its heads," Harry replied.

"No, _not_ the floor. It was standing on a trapdoor. It's obviously guarding something," I said, standing up. I was becoming angrier by the minute. I should have been sleeping safely in my bed this whole time, but they had to go breaking rules and I had to go after them. I chose to blame them though, instead of myself. "I hope you're pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed – or worse, expelled," I said. How horrible would it be if I had to go back to my old school and admit to everyone that I was kicked out of the school for gifted students I had told them I was going to. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed." I when straight back to my dormitory and collapsed into bed, exhausted.


	9. Friendship

**Hey everybody! Here's the next chapter. Reviews make me smile, so leave some. Thanks ahead of time :)**

Chapter 9: Friendship

The next morning, I woke up to the sound of chatter and a fair bit of giggling. Parvati and Lavender were huddled over something in Parvati's trunk, but when they saw I was awake, they shut the lid so I couldn't see inside. I didn't think too much of that though, I'm sure they weren't gossiping about me or anything.

"Good morning Parvati, Lavender," I said. They said good morning back and then prepared to leave for the Great Hall. "Just a second, I'll come with you," I said, dressing as quickly as I could and grabbing my bag. I followed them out of the dormitory and tried to start a conversation on the way to breakfast, but it became clear very quickly that they didn't want to talk to me, and I ended up walking along a step behind them while they kept their heads bent together and whispered and giggled.

When we got to the Great Hall, they took two seats with each other that didn't have any other seats open nearby. If it wasn't obvious before, I was certain now that they weren't interested in befriending me. I tried not to let this affect me and I sat down with Neville. I refused to talk to Harry and Ron at breakfast, still angry about what they had done the night before. Harry received a large package in the mail and then went into the Entrance Hall to open it. I didn't really care what it was at all, so I remained at the table and finished my breakfast. When I was done, I left the Great Hall and upon entering the Entrance Hall, discovered Harry and Ron talking to Malfoy and Professor Flitwick.

I heard Harry tell Professor Flitwick that it was a Nimbus Two Thousand, and that it was thanks to Malfoy that he got it. Harry and Ron then continued up the stairs and I followed after them, as I was going in that direction.

"Well, it's true," Harry was saying to Ron. "If he hadn't stolen Neville's Remembrall I wouldn't be on the team…" I realized that when Harry caught the Remembrall and didn't get punished, it must've been because he was recognized as a good flier and recruited for the house Quidditch team.

"So I suppose you think that's a reward for breaking the rules?" I said, glaring at the package which was his broomstick.

"I thought you weren't speaking to us?" Harry asked.

"Yes, don't stop now, its doing us so much good," Ron added.

At this comment, I was highly offended. Instead of letting them know that they had hurt me, however, I simply walked away, holding my head up, and went to class.

After dinner that day, I went to the library, as usual and decided it was time I wrote to my parents and told them about life at Hogwarts.

_Dear Mum and Dad,_

_How are you? I'm quite enjoying Hogwarts. I made a couple of friends on the train, Neville and Lisa, though Lisa is not in my house, so I don't really talk to her anymore. My dorm mates are nice, but we don't talk all that much either. I have been talking to a couple of boys named Harry and Ron, but I don't think they really like me._

_My classes are quite fun. I'm very good at Transfiguration and Charms, and I'm the only one who pays attention during History of Magic. I do enjoy brewing Potions, but the teacher, Professor Snape, doesn't seem to like me very much. Professor McGonagall does though, you remember her? She was the one who came to visit us in the summer. She gave me five points because I knew what a Switching Spell was. _

_The librarian, Madam Pince, is also very nice. I come to the library almost every day so she sees me often and she recognizes me now and smiles when I arrive. I'm studying hard, as always, don't worry. I hope to hear from you soon. _

_Love,_

_Hermione_

When I was finished writing my letter, I left the library and headed for the owlery to borrow one of the school owls, since I didn't have one. As I watched the owl fly away with my letter, I hoped my parents would have come to terms with everything now and be as excited as I was that I was attending Hogwarts.

* * *

The next two months passed by in quite a blur. Classes were becoming more demanding and I needed to spend more and more time studying in the library. I could never understand how people could waste their time sitting around the common room playing games when there's work to be done. My birthday was a little disappointing. Neville got me a few pumpkin pastilles, but mum and dad never sent anything and nobody else even acknowledged my birthday. I was pretty used to this, though, so I tried not to dwell on it.

Finally, on Halloween, Professor Flitwick announced that we would finally be moving away from the theory of charms to the actual practice of charms. He put us into pairs, and I got partnered with Ron. I decided to let the whole incident with the three headed dog go and try to befriend him and Harry.

Since I had already learned the levitation spell, I told Ron he could go first. He began to wave his arms in great mighty swoops and shouted the incantation at the feather he was trying to levitate. After a few wrong tries, I thought I'd help him. After all, I had had difficulty with this spell in the summer and it took me a little while to figure it out.

"You're saying it wrong," I told him. "It's Win-_gar_-dium Levi-_o_sa, make the 'gar' nice and long." I hoped he would be grateful for my help and maybe stop hating me so much, but he didn't seem happy at all.

"You do it, then, if you're so clever," he snapped at me. I decided that maybe if I demonstrated it for him, he would be able to do it, so I rolled up my sleeves and did the spell. The feather rose into the air and I kept it hovering above our heads.

Professor Flitwick was very excited and announced my achievement to the whole class, which seemed to make Ron even madder, though I have no idea why.

When class was over, I began to approach Harry and Ron in the hopes that I could join them.

"It's no wonder no one can stand her," Ron was saying to Harry. "She's a nightmare honestly."

Upon hearing this, something inside me snapped. So far, the only person at this school who tolerated me was Neville and even he didn't really seem to think of me as a friend. Was it really that much to ask that somebody like me and be my friend? I felt my eyes fill with tears and I knew I would be sobbing soon, so I hurried away to the bathroom as fast as I could in the hopes that nobody would notice I was crying.

I accidently bumped into Harry as I passed him and Ron, and I heard Ron saying "So? She must've noticed she's got no friends."

This comment pushed me even farther over the edge. Of course I knew I didn't have friends, but to hear it said aloud is a whole different story. Ron's never had to go through life all alone, being teased my all his classmates, never having anyone to confide in. I've been that way my whole life. I don't know why, but nobody ever wants to be my friend. When I got to the nearest girls' bathroom, I locked myself in a stall and cried and cried and cried. I know I missed my next class, and I was probably missing dinner, but I was too upset to worry about that at the moment.

_She's a nightmare…_

_She must've noticed she's got no friends…_

_No wonder no one can stand her…_

_Nightmare…_

Ron's words resonated in my head over and over again, making me more and more miserable.

Then, suddenly, I heard very loud footsteps and I realized there was someone else in the bathroom with me. I heard the bathroom door being shut and locked and I wondered what was going on. I opened the toilet stall door and peered out, and standing in the middle of the room, there was a troll. I knew it was a troll because I had seen pictures of them in the books I had read.

It saw me and I screamed, terrified. What was I supposed to do against a troll? I certainly didn't know enough magic to fight it. I ran to the opposite wall and crouched into the corner. The troll advanced and began swinging its club wildly. It was smashing the sinks from the walls, leaving sharp, jagged bits lying all over the floor.

Out of nowhere, Harry and Ron burst into the room and started throwing pieces of sink at the troll to try and distract it from me. I was immensely grateful. I couldn't believe that they had come to save me since they hated me so much.

When it turned its attention to Harry and Ron, Harry yelled at me to run. I tried, but my legs felt like they were cemented into the floor. I was stuck to the wall. All I could do was watch in terror. Then, Harry jumped onto the troll's neck and hung along its back. When the troll still didn't notice anything, Harry stuck his wand up its nose.

The troll started flailing around, and Ron pulled out his wand crying out "Wingardium Leviosa." The troll's club rose into the air, and then suddenly dropped onto the troll's head, knocking it out.

When it remained motionless, I began to pick myself up. At some point I had slid to the floor and had ended up sitting.

"Is it dead?" I asked, unsure if it was safe to move yet.

"I don't think so, just knocked out," Harry replied. I figured if it was knocked out I would be safe, so I moved to the other side of the room.

A moment later, Professors McGonagall, Snape and Quirrell had all arrived at the doorway and demanded an explanation for what we were doing here. I realized that Harry and Ron were supposed to have followed the rest of Gryffindor to the common room and that they had come just to save me. I didn't want them getting into any more trouble though, so I decided to take the blame.

"Please, Professor McGonagall – they were looking for me," I said. This part at least, was true.

"Miss Granger!" Professor McGonagall said, looking positively aghast.

"I went looking for the troll because I – I thought I could deal with it on my own – you know, because I've read all about them. If they hadn't found me, I'd be dead now. Harry stuck his wand up its nose and Ron knocked it out with its own club. They didn't have time to come and fetch anyone. It was about to finish me off when they arrived." At least this wasn't a complete lie. Parts of it were true. I just couldn't let Harry and Ron get in trouble again when they had done what they did to save my life.

"Well – in that case… Miss Granger, you foolish girl, how could you think of tackling a mountain troll on your own?" Professor McGonagall asked. I hung my head to show that I understood that what I had done was wrong. "Miss Granger, five points will be taken from Gryffindor for this. I'm very disappointed in you. If you're not hurt at all, you'd better get off to Gryffindor tower. Students are finishing the feast in their Houses."

I left, not wanting to make Professor McGonagall any madder with me. I hated the look in her eyes when she heard what I had 'done'. I always liked to be on my teacher's good sides. When I got to Gryffindor tower, I waited by the portrait hole. I wanted to catch Harry and Ron when they got back before they went off to their own dormitories.

When they arrived, I didn't say anything right away. I was actually still a little embarrassed. Finally, I said "Thanks," and so did Ron and Harry, for my lying for them I suppose. Then we went and got plates of food. After that, I finally had friends. Harry and Ron started to include me and I think they actually genuinely liked me. For the first time in my whole life, I had friends.


	10. Snape

**Hello again to all of you! I have been asked if this story would only be first year or if it would continue through seventh year, and the answer is that I am planning on taking it all the way to the end of Deathly Hallows. I would like to thank my one reviewer from the last chapter, you would not believe how excited I got when I got the notification that I finally had a review! Anyway, on to the chapter:**

Chapter 10: Snape

Harry and Ron turned out to be major procrastinators when it came to school work. Since Harry was on the Quidditch team, he had practices three times a week and for some reason, Ron liked to go and watch them. That didn't leave them with much time left to do their homework. In the end, they convinced me to help them out. I refused to do their homework for them; otherwise how would they learn? But I would look it over and show them what they did wrong, and I would sometimes rewrite their essays for them when they were really bad.

Since Harry had only recently discovered Quidditch, I thought he might like to read the book I got from the library before flying lessons started, _Quidditch through the Ages_, so I leant it to him. One day when we were outside, Snape saw Harry holding the book and he confiscated it, claiming that library books weren't allowed to be taken outside. I checked with Madam Pince, and that isn't actually a rule, so I figured Snape just wanted a reason to take points from Gryffindor.

The night before the first Quidditch match, Harry was feeling quite nervous, so he went to see if he could get _Quidditch through the Ages_ back to take his mind off his stress. He left Ron and me in the common room. I was looking over Ron's charms homework. He had answered twelve of the fifteen questions wrong and I was crossing out his answers and writing the correct answers above his.

Just as Ron was beginning to recopy the correct answers onto a new piece of parchment, Harry returned, panting a bit as though he had been running. He told us that when he had gone to the staff room and that when he got there, Snape was showing Filch his knee, which was covered in blood and that he asked how you were supposed to 'keep your eyes on all three heads at once.'

"You know what this means?" Harry finished, finally catching his breath. "He tried to get past that three-headed dog at Halloween! That's where he was going when we saw him – he's after whatever it's guarding! I'd bet my broomstick _he_ let that troll in, to make a diversion."

I couldn't believe that Snape would do something like that. "No – he wouldn't. I know he's not very nice, but he wouldn't try and steal something Dumbledore was keeping safe," I said, shocked that they would accuse a teacher.

"Honestly, Hermione, you think all teachers are saints or something," Ron snapped at me. "I'm with Harry. I wouldn't put anything past Snape. But what's he after? What's that dog guarding?"

I still couldn't believe that a teacher would try to steal. If Dumbledore trusts him enough to teach here, surely he trusts him not to steal? Teachers don't do that. I decided it was a good time for me to go to bed, so I left. The other girls weren't in the dormitory yet, but I didn't really care. They were polite to me, sure, but they never included me in anything. Lavender and Parvati were always giggling with each other, their heads bent over something or other. Sally-Anne and Lily spent all their time with some Hufflepuff girls. I don't know their names yet.

* * *

The next morning, Harry was even more nervous than the night before. He was refusing to eat anything, which was not a very smart move, because he was going to need to have some food in him if he was going to be playing Quidditch. He didn't need to be falling off his broom a minute into the game.

When breakfast was over, Harry headed to the changing rooms and I followed Ron, Dean, Seamus and Neville to the top row of the stands to watch the game. The other boys had painted a banner out of a bed sheet that said_ Potter for President_. Dean had drawn a lion underneath it. When I saw it, I had an idea and I performed a spell from the last chapter of _The Standard Book of Spells_ that made the paint flash different colors. That would make it more visible and people would be bound to notice it.

The game began, and the Quaffle started to get passed back and forth. There was a lot going on and I had difficulty keeping up. I knew when I goal was made, though, because Lee Jordan, the commentator, called in out every time. Harry was just hovering in the air, looking for the Snitch. He hadn't really done much yet, and I assumed he was trying to keep out of the action until he had to join it.

Hagrid joined us and asked how Harry was doing, but there wasn't much to say since he hadn't done anything.

All of a sudden, Harry dove. He had seen the snitch. But then one of the Slytherin players blocked Harry, causing him to veer off to the side and almost fall. While everyone was yelling and organizing a penalty shot, it seemed that Harry had lost the snitch.

Then, Harry's broom started very strange. It appeared as though the broom wanted to make Harry fall off of it. I knew that Harry wasn't doing that on purpose, and I had read enough about brooms to know that they don't act this way, especially not when they're brand new. So I deduced that somebody else must be causing this to happen. The rest of the crowd then became aware of what was happening.

Seamus was asking if Flint did something when he blocked Harry and then Hagrid was saying "Can't have. Can't nothing interfere with a broomstick except powerful Dark magic – no kid could do that to a Nimbus Two Thousand."

I realized that this meant that it must be a teacher doing this, and I also realized that the only teacher I could think of that would do something like that would be Snape. I grabbed Hagrid's binoculars and located Snape in the teacher's stands. He was staring fixedly at Harry and muttering something. As much as I had a hard time believing that a teacher would do something like that, I was watching him do it. I decided that Snape wasn't as good as I had thought he was last night. He probably was trying to get past the three-headed dog, and he probably did let in the troll.

"I knew it," I said to the others. "Snape – look." Ron grabbed the binoculars to see what I had just seen.

"He's doing something – jinxing the broom," I told him.

"What should we do?" Ron asked, looking very worried.

"Leave it to me," I said. I knew I could figure something out. I started to head around the stands to the other side. When I reached the teachers stand, I raced along the row behind Snape. I think I knocked a teacher over, but I was too worried about Harry to notice. When I reached Snape, I made a split-second decision. I muttered the incantation for the portable flames I had been using when we were outside and cold and the hem of Snape's robes were on fire. When he finally realized he was on fire, I pulled the jar I had been using to hold the flames from my cloak and scooped the flames into it. I didn't want to burn down the whole stadium.

I ran as fast as I could back to where Ron and the others were standing, not wanting to be caught. When I got back I looked up to see Harry crashing onto the ground and coughing the snitch out of his mouth into his outstretched hands.

* * *

After the game, the three of us went back to Hagrid's hut for tea. Ron explained that it was Snape that was cursing the broomstick, but Hagrid was holding on to the principles I had had the night before. He insisted that he was a teacher and that teachers would never do something like that. Harry explained about how Snape had tried to get past the three-headed dog, and Hagrid was shocked.

"How do you know about Fluffy?" he asked.

"_Fluffy_?" Harry said. I was thinking the same thing.

"Yeah – he's mine – bought him off a Greek chappie I met in the pub las' year – I lent him to Dumbledore to guard the – " but what the dog was guarding we never found out, because Hagrid suddenly realized that he was going to reveal a big secret and stopped himself. We tried to prove that Snape was trying to steal it, but Hagrid wouldn't hear of it.

"Now listen to me, all three of yeh – yer meddlin' in things that don' concern yeh. It's dangerous. You forget that dog, an' you forget what it's guardin', that's between Professor Dumbledore an' Nicholas Flamel – "Hagrid said. He had just given us a very valuable piece of information and I don't think he even realized it.

"Aha!" Harry cried. "So there's someone called Nicholas Flamel involved, is there?"

Hagrid frowned and looked very upset with himself. He kicked us out then, probably so we wouldn't ask any more questions. I ran straight to the library and started looking up this Nicholas Flamel. I hadn't read anything about him yet, but I knew I would find him eventually. I knew that once I figured out who he was, we'd figure out what it was that the dog was guarding – and what it was that Snape wanted so badly.


	11. Home for the Holidays

**Alright, so here is chapter 11. Hope you enjoy it.**

Chapter 11: Home for the Holidays

"Mum! Dad!" I cried as I ran off the Hogwarts Express. It was the Christmas holidays and I was home for the next two weeks. Dad grabbed me in a big hug and when he was done, mum hugged me too. Dad took my trunk from me and dragged it out to the car. I spent the whole ride back telling them all about life at Hogwarts. They told me that they had gotten my letter, but that the owl flew away before they could send a reply, and I felt better knowing they hadn't been ignoring me.

When we got back home, dad brought my trunk up to my bedroom and I began to unpack while mum started to prepare dinner. When I was finished, I remembered the last conversation I had had with Harry and Ron before I left Hogwarts. Harry didn't like his relatives and had opted to remain at Hogwarts for Christmas and Ron's parents were visiting his brother in Romania, so he was staying too.

We had been looking for information on Nicholas Flamel in the library every day since Hagrid let his name slip, but so far we had been unsuccessful. It was very frustrating. "You will keep looking while I'm away, won't you? And send me an owl if you find anything," I had told them.

"And you could ask your parents if they know who Flamel is," Ron had said. "It'd be safe to ask them."

"Very safe, as they're both dentists," I had replied.

I decided I might as well ask them, though I didn't really think they would know. I went down to the kitchen, where mum was preparing dinner.

"Mum, have you ever heard of someone named Nicholas Flamel?" I asked, making it seem like a passing thought.

"Nicholas Flamel?" Mum asked. "No, why? Who is he?"

"Oh, nobody important," I said. I had decided it would be best not to tell mum and dad about the whole situation with Snape and the three-headed dog.

"Is it for one of your classes?" mum asked, clearly concerned that I might not be doing as well as I kept telling her.

"No, no. One of my dorm mates was talking about him a few nights ago, and I was curious," I lied. I seemed to be getting much better at lying since I started spending time with Harry and Ron. I couldn't decide if that was a good or a bad thing. I decided not to ask dad. It was clear that this was not something either of them would know.

The next day, mum and dad had to go to work. They were planning on taking time off in the week after Christmas rather than this first week, because many of the others in their office were taking this week off, so I was pretty much on my own for now. I decided to get started on my homework, because we had been assigned a fair amount, and I wasn't sure how much time I would want to spend on it when my parents weren't working.

As I began my essay for History of Magic, I sighed to myself, knowing that Harry and Ron were going to leave their homework until the last day of the holidays and that when I got back I would have to look it over for them. I rolled my eyes, smiling to myself, and I opened my textbook to begin.

I wished I could practice some more charms and maybe even some transfiguration spells, but on the train everyone had received a letter telling us that we weren't to do any magic while we were away.

* * *

When I woke up on Christmas morning, I went downstairs right away to the Christmas tree, where I knew my parents were waiting for me. All together, we opened our presents. I had gone shopping while my parents were at work to get their presents. I didn't think they would want something from a wizarding shop. I had bought them each a book from the bookstore down the street. They liked to read very much, though not quite as much as I did. I had bought Harry and Ron candy – chocolate frogs for Harry and Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans for Ron. I had left those for them before I left for the holidays though.

My parents handed me their gift first, so I opened it. They had gotten me a journal. They told me it was to write all about my experiences at Hogwarts so I would never forget them. Then there were some Christmas cards from aunts and uncles with five or ten pound notes enclosed. I knew I would have to exchange those at Gringotts at some point, and I hoped mum and dad would take me to Diagon Alley sometime during the holiday.

Gifts from Harry and Ron had arrived the night before with Hedwig and another school owl. Harry had gotten me a package of licorice wands and Ron had gotten me sugar quills. My parents weren't particularly happy when they saw the sweets, so I put them away quickly. Even Hagrid had sent me something. I think they were meant to be little cakes, but they were rock hard, and when I tried to eat one, I almost broke a tooth. I threw them out, but made a note to tell Hagrid that they were excellent.

Mum and dad spent the rest of the day with me. We went out for a walk and then me and dad helped mum to make Christmas dinner. I was glad to finally have some time to spend with my parents.

A few days later, I convinced my parents take me to Diagon Alley. They finally agreed. They chose to wear their long coats in the hope that they would blend in better. I wore my school robes and my cloak. When we got there, I exchanged my Christmas money for wizard money at Gringotts and then I looked into a few shops. I spent quite a long time in _Flourish and Blotts_, hoping I would see a book on Nicholas Flamel, but I didn't, and I decided not to buy another book, because I already had so many my trunk could barely close.

I ended up buying a revealer, which looked interesting, and I also bought some more quills and parchment, as I knew I would need them later in the term.

As the holidays started to come to an end, mum and dad grew sad, as I would be leaving again until the summer. As sorry as I was that I had to leave, I was quite glad to be going back. After having spent the past couple of months with so many people around me all the time, I had grown unaccustomed to being alone.

Mum and dad actually helped me to pack my trunk the night before I had to be at King's Cross. I think they had finally come to terms with my being a witch and they chose to embrace it. They even made sure I had done all my homework, which of course, I had.

At King's Cross the next day, they said goodbye to me, and when I was on the train, I looked out the window of my compartment and saw that mum had a tear running down her cheek. I opened my window and called out to them that I loved them, and then the train began to pull out of the station and headed towards Hogwarts again.

When I got back to the school, I headed up to the common room to find Harry and Ron and wish them a Happy Christmas, though it was a little late. Harry told me that he had been given an invisibility cloak for Christmas, which was amazing, but it was a little suspicious that there hadn't been a name. Then he told me about how he had used it to look in the restricted section of the library for Nicholas Flamel, but that Filch had almost caught him and he ended up finding a mirror that showed him his parents when he looked inside it.

Harry was disappointed that Dumbledore had moved the mirror, but I was mostly disappointed that he hadn't found Flamel in the restricted section. I also made sure to impress upon him that it was not a good idea to go roaming around at night, but at this point, I didn't think there was much I could do to dissuade him. Look at what happened that night he had planned on dueling Malfoy.

As I had predicted, Harry and Ron had left all their homework to the last minute, and were still working on it even though term started again the next day. I took pity on them and let them see what I had done, though I was strict in telling them not to copy my words exactly.

When term began again, Harry and Ron pretty much gave up on looking for Nicholas Flamel, what with all the homework and Harry's Quidditch practices. I continued to search the library whenever I had a free moment though. I felt as though I wouldn't sleep properly until I figured out who he was.


	12. The Philosopher's Stone

**Yay! Chapter 12 is here! I'm in a good mood today :) Please review and make my day even better!**

Chapter 12: The Philosopher's Stone

One night, I was in the common room with Ron while Harry was off at Quidditch practice. Ron had convinced me to take a break from my search for Flamel and had pretty much forced me to play wizard's chess with him. I don't understand why I can't play it well, chess is supposed to be about logic and strategy, so it should come naturally to me, but somehow I always lost spectacularly. I think that mostly Ron liked to play with me because he felt good when he beat me at something, and this was the only thing he could beat me at.

I must've made a good move, because Ron was suddenly concentrating very hard on the board, trying to determine his next move. Harry returned to the common room from his Quidditch practice and sat down with us.

"Don't talk to me for a moment," Ron said, still focused on the board. Upon seeing Harry's face, I knew something was wrong, but Ron was still talking. "I need to concen–"Ron looked up and saw Harry's miserable face. "What's the matter with you? You look terrible."

Harry then told us that Wood had just informed the team that Snape would be refereeing the next game. I went into a momentary period of shock. Snape had tried to kill Harry at the last game, what would he be able to do if he was actually flying around the pitch with Harry, even right next to Harry?

I quickly recovered and Ron and I began to make suggestions. "Don't play," I said.

"Say you're ill."

"Pretend to break your leg."

"_Really_ break your leg." I think Ron might have been pushing it with this last one.

"I can't," Harry said. "There isn't a reserve Seeker. If I back out, Gryffindor can't play at all."

I thought it was quite ridiculous for Harry to be thinking about the standing of his Quidditch team above his own life, I mean, sure, it would be upsetting if Gryffindor had to forfeit and lost as a result, but Harry could _die_. I didn't get a chance to say anything though, because at that moment, Neville came tumbling through the portrait hole, his legs stuck together.

I recognized the curse immediately as the Leg-Locker Curse, and I knew the counter-curse from my reading, so I performed it right away and freed Neville.

"What happened?" I asked, feeling kind of bad that I hadn't been there to prevent this. After all, I had been spending all my time with Neville before Harry and Ron had befriended me after battling the troll.

"Malfoy," Neville said. He explained that he had been ambushed when he was leaving the library. I felt even worse because I had planned on being in the library tonight before Ron convinced me to play chess with him.

"Go to Professor McGonagall," I said immediately. "Report him!" Malfoy couldn't be allowed to go around harassing people, and if he was punished right away maybe he would stop.

"I don't want any more trouble," Neville said, shaking his head. I sighed. Neville really needed to stand up to him. Actually, Neville just needed to stand up to somebody. Otherwise, the whole school would soon see him as an easy target and he would never sleep peacefully again.

Ron and Harry tried to cheer him up, and Harry gave him a chocolate frog. Neville appeared to feel a little better and he headed off to bed. Neville had given Harry his card, and Harry was turning it over. Suddenly, he gasped and his eyes opened as wide as they could go.

"I've found him," he said. "I've found Flamel! I told you I'd read the name before, I read it on the train coming here – listen to this: 'Professor Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood _and his work on alchemy with his partner Nicholas Flamel_'!"

I could have slapped myself. He was involved with alchemy! Nicholas Flamel was an alchemist. I had taken a book out of the library a few weeks ago about ancient studies such as alchemy and xylomancy and all that. I jumped up and ran up to my dormitory and grabbed the book from my nightstand. I ran back downstairs with it to Harry and Ron. I flipped through it to the back, where the section on alchemy was. I couldn't believe that it was right here, plain as day, in black and white, and that I hadn't found it before now. I shushed Ron, because he was talking, and I read.

_The ancient study of alchemy is concerned with making the Philosopher's Stone, a legendary substance with astonishing powers. The stone will transform any metal into pure gold. It also produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal._

_There have been many reports of the Philosopher's Stone over the centuries, but the only Stone currently in existence belongs to Mr. Nicholas Flamel, the noted alchemist and opera-lover. Mr. Flamel, who celebrated his six hundred and sixty-fifth birthday last year, enjoys a quiet life in Devon with his wife, Perenelle (six hundred and fifty-eight)._

"I knew it! I _knew_ it!" I cried.

"Are we allowed to speak yet?" Ron asked, clearly unhappy that I had shushed him.

"Nicholas Flamel is the _only known maker of the Philosopher's Stone_!" I said, trying to be as dramatic as possible.

"The what?" Harry and Ron both asked. I sighed and rolled my eyes.

"Oh _honestly_, don't you two read? Look – read that, there," I said pushing the book forward. Of course, I knew they actually didn't read. They spent too much time flying around on broomsticks and instructing tiny chess pieces to destroy other chess pieces like tiny little barbarians.

"See?" I said, when it looked like they had finished. They took much longer to read it than I had. "The dog must be guarding Flamel's Philosopher's Stone! I bet he asked Dumbledore to keep it safe for him, because they're friends and he knew someone was after it. That's why he wanted the Stone moved out of Gringotts!" I said, putting all the pieces together.

"A stone that makes gold and stops you ever dying!" Harry said. "No wonder Snape's after it! _Anyone_ would want it."

"And no wonder we couldn't find Flamel in that _Study of Recent Developments in Wizardry_," Ron added. "He's not exactly recent if he's six-hundred and sixty-five, is he?"

We had finally figured out what we had been searching for, and Harry and Ron seemed appeased, but when I returned to my dormitory later and lay down in my bed, I couldn't help but wonder what we should do next. We put all this effort into figuring it out, and now we knew Snape was trying to steal this extremely valuable object. We had to do something about it, but we were first years. There wasn't much we could do. And we couldn't exactly tell an adult, like I normally would, because we weren't supposed to know about any of this. Eventually, I managed to fall asleep, but it was a restless night, and the next morning it took a great effort to push all these questions out of my mind for the time being and focus on my classes.

* * *

All too soon, it was the day of Harry's Quidditch game. Ron and I were prepared to curse Snape if it came to that; I just really hoped we didn't need to. After all, cursing a teacher is pretty serious. But if Harry appeared to be in danger, we would do it. After we had wished Harry good luck, we headed to the stands and joined Neville. I was feeling very nervous and very worried about Harry's safety.

"Why did you bring your wands?" Neville asked when he saw that Ron and I were holding them in our hands, ready to curse Snape at the first sign of wanting to hurt Harry. Neville then caught sight of our faces. "Why do you look so worried?" he asked.

"Oh, we're just really hoping Gryffindor win," Ron said. "But with Snape refereeing, he's bound to favor Hufflepuff." I silently congratulated Ron on his cover story. Neville still appeared confused as to why we had our wands, so I motioned to Ron to put it in his pocket, but to be prepared anyway.

"Now, don't forget, it's _Locomotor Mortis_," I muttered to Ron so that Neville couldn't hear.

Ron slipped his wand up his sleeve for easier access. "I _know_, don't nag," Ron snapped back at me.

Snape walked out onto the pitch to begin the game looking very sour. "I've never seen Snape look so mean," Ron said. The two teams mounted their brooms and fly into the sky. "Look – they're off. Ouch!" Ron said as Malfoy poked him on the back of the head.

Malfoy was with Crabbe and Goyle and they were saying something to Ron and Neville, probably insulting them, but I was too focused on the game to pay attention. I crossed my fingers, hoping nothing would happen to Harry as he circled around the pitch in search of the snitch. He was so exposed up there, anything could happen to him.

Harry continued to fly in circles for about three minutes and then he suddenly dove. "Ron! Harry - !" I cried, jumping to my feet. Somehow, my fingers ended up in my mouth in my anxiety for Harry to catch the snitch and end the game before anything could happen.

"Come on Harry!" I exclaimed. I jumped onto my seat because Parvati Patil, who was in front of me, had stood up and blocked my view. Harry was flying right for Snape. All the muscles in my stomach clenched. Harry flew right past Snape and missed him by inches. Then, he was pulling out of the dive, his arm raised in the air. He had caught the snitch. It was over. He wasn't dead.

"Ron! Ron! Where are you?" I cried, turning around and not seeing Ron standing next to me anymore. "The game's over! Harry's won! We've won! Gryffindor are in the lead!" I jumped down from my seat and hugged Parvati in front of me and danced around in my excitement.

I turned around, and finally found Ron picking himself up off the ground with Malfoy. Neville, Crabbe and Goyle were doing the same a little further away. Apparently they had ended up fighting during the match. As Harry landed on the ground, the crowd finally started to move, and Ron and I were able to run onto the pitch. Harry was busy being lifted into the air, but we cheered at him from a distance. Ron's nose was bleeding and when I finally realized this, I performed a spell to stop it.

* * *

After the game, Harry went to change and shower in the changing room and Ron and I returned to the common room to wait for Harry. When we got to the common room, there was a party in full swing. Ron's brothers, Fred and George disappeared for a few minutes, and when they returned they were laden down with cakes and pastries from the kitchens. After an hour, when Harry still hadn't arrived, Ron and I decided to go find him.

We found him in the hallway from the Entrance Hall.

"Harry, where have you _been_?" I asked when we found him.

"We won! You won! We won!" Ron shouted as he thumped Harry on the back. "And I gave Malfoy a black eye and Neville tried to take on Crabbe and Goyle single-handed! He's still out cold but Madam Pomfrey says he'll be all right – talk about showing Slytherin! Everyone's waiting for you in the common room, we're having a party, Fred and George stole some cakes and stuff from the kitchens."

"Never mind that now," Harry said. His expression made me wary, he looked disturbed about something. Had Snape tried something after the game? "Let's find an empty room; you wait 'til you hear this…" We entered an unused classroom and made sure Peeves wasn't around.

"After the game, I saw Snape sneaking into the forest, so I followed on my broomstick. When I found him, he was talking to Quirrell, harassing him really. He mentioned the Philosopher's Stone and Quirrell was stuttering. I didn't hear the whole conversation, but Quirrell was resisting and Snape was trying to get him to help him. He said they would talk again when Quirrell had decided on his loyalties," Harry revealed. "So we were right, it is the Philosopher's Stone, and Snape's trying to force Quirrell to help him get it. He asked if he knew how to get past Fluffy – and he said something about Quirrell's 'hocus pocus' – I reckon there are other things guarding the stone apart from Fluffy, loads of enchantments, probably, and Quirrell would have done some anti-Dark Arts spell which Snape needs to break through –"

I felt all the blood in my body go cold. "So you mean the Stone's only safe as long as Quirrell stands up to Snape?" I asked, alarmed. That meant… This means… The Stone's… We're all… Snape's going to…

"It'll be gone by next Tuesday," Ron said, summing up exactly what I was trying to think through. This was not good.


	13. Helping Hagrid

**Hey guys! I'm in a super good mood right now because I just passed my driving exam! So I came hope and wrote a chapter. You guys are the first people to find out other than my mother. This chapter might be weird, because I didn't proofread it. I just wanted to post another chapter. Okay, that it from me. Except for please review!**

Chapter 13: Helping Hagrid

I didn't have much time to ponder over the Philosopher's Stone, though. Later that night, I went back up to my dormitory and took a look at my calendar, and I realised that exams were only ten weeks away. I had been spending so much time trying to figure out who Nicholas Flamel was that I completely forgot to study for exams! The next day, I immediately began to make a plan. I had to make sure I studied everything. I figured I could get about an hour of revision in every morning before breakfast, another hour at lunch, and four more hours at the end of the day. I had to sort out what subjects I would revise and when. I assigned each subject a color and filled in a large revision-timetable. I decided if I was going to revise the material for the entire year, I had better specify what I would study from each class each day. I tried to vary the topics as much as possible so that I could cover everything as evenly as possible. It was imperative that I pass these exams. After all, if I failed them, I would be sent back to my old school, and I didn't want to leave Hogwarts.

Harry and Ron seemed to be taking everything much less seriously than I was. I couldn't understand how they weren't at all worried. It was like they didn't even care if they didn't come back next year. I tried to convince them to make their own revision-timetables, but they flat-out refused. The teachers had also begun to pile on more and more work, which I found a welcome addition as it was all designed to help us with our revising. Even Harry and Ron had to start spending more time with me in the library to keep up with the work.

One day, when Ron was particularly frustrated, he violently threw his quill at his parchment, yelling "I'll never remember this!" I was preparing to explain to Ron that he needed to focus and stop expecting his notes to be ingrained into his head without any work at all. Staring at them won't do anything. But before I had the chance, Ron cried "Hagrid! What are you doing in the library?"

I turned around in my seat to see that Hagrid was indeed in the library and was acting quite suspiciously. He was shuffling his feet and held one hand behind his back as though he were hiding something.

"Jus' lookin'," he said, sounding as though he was doing something he shouldn't be doing. His eyes flitted around the room, like he was afraid to hold any of our gazes. "An' what're you lot up ter? Yer not still lookin' fer Nicholas Flamel, are yeh?" he suddenly asked, trying to appear stern.

"Oh we found out who he was ages ago," Ron said. "_And_ we know what that dog's guarding, it's a Philosopher's St – " Ron didn't get to finish, because Hagrid shushed him wildly. Harry tried to ask him a question, but Hagrid shushed him as well.

"Listen – come an' see me later, I'm not promisin' I'll tell yeh anythin', mind, but don' go rabbitin' about it in here, students aren' s'pposed ter know. They'll think I've told yeh – "Hagrid said. We agreed to come see him later, and he left, still hiding whatever it was he was hiding from view. I wondered alound what it was and Ron got up to see what section he had been in.

"_Dragons_!" Ron whispered when he returned with a stack of books in his hands. It was actually a pretty funny picture; Ron holding a stack of books. Normally he ran away from books screaming. "Hagrid was looking up stuff about dragons! Look at these: _Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland; From Egg to Inferno, A Dragon Keeper's Guide_.

"Hagrid's always wanted a dragon, he told me so the first time I ever met him," Harry revealed. I couldn't believe that Hagrid was planning on raising a dragon, I mean, it's illegal! And it wasn't going to be easy to hide it; they grow up to be enormous. As soon as someone found out, he would be carted off to prison. On the other hand, I could be overreacting. He might not be planning on raising a dragon; he could have just been doing some reading. But his suspicious behaviour suggested otherwise.

"So what on earth's Hagrid up to?" I wondered out loud.

I didn't have to wonder for long. Later that night, we headed down to Hagrid's hut to ask him about the Philosopher's Stone. It was ridiculously hot inside, and despite the fact that it was a really hot day, he had a fire going in the fireplace.

Harry asked Hagrid about things protecting the Stone apart from Fluffy, such as spells and enchantments. Hagrid replied by telling us that he wasn't going to tell us anything – that we already knew too much. I saw that we were going to need to stop being to direct about this. The last time he told us valuable information, it had slipped out. We needed him to say something important without him realizing what he was telling us.

"Oh, come on Hagrid, you might not want to tell us, but you _do_ know, you know everything that goes on round here. We only wondered who had _done_ the guarding, really. We wondered who Dumbledore had trusted enough to help him, apart from you," I said, deciding that flattery might be the answer.

Then Hagrid smiled widely and puffed his chest out a bit in pride. He told us that Professors Sprout, Flitwick, McGonagall, Quirrell and Snape had each done something to protect it. When he said Snape's name, we all panicked. If Snape was a part of the protecting, he would know who else was in on it, and possibly even what some of the other teachers did. In fact, it appeared that only Quirrell's spell and Fluffy were still posing a problem.

Our attention then turned to the fire. I had a bad feeling that I knew what was in the fire. I saw a large black egg sitting there, and I was positive I knew. Hagrid had a dragon. Hagrid revealed that he had won it playing cards the night before in the village. I asked what he would do with it when it had hatched, and he pulled out the book he had taken from the library. It was called _Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit_. He didn't really answer my question though; he just talked about what he would feed it. I was more worried about what he would do about its size, its violent nature, and most importantly, the fact that it would breathe fire.

"Hagrid," I said, trying to make him understand, "you live in a _wooden house_." He didn't even seem to be paying attention.

I chose to not worry about Hagrid's dragon, as I had so many other things on my mind. Most important were the upcoming exams. One day at breakfast, Harry received a note from Hagrid that read: _It's hatching_. When I saw it, I rolled my eyes inwardly at Hagrid. Ron even wanted to skip class to watch, but I wouldn't let him. Classes were especially important now with exams around the corner. I finally agreed that we could visit Hagrid at morning break. I hadn't scheduled any revising during break and I knew Ron would be unbearable if I didn't give in.

"It's nearly out," Hagrid said when we arrived. We gathered around his table, on which the egg had been placed. All of a sudden, there was a noise and the shell was flung away from the table, a baby dragon left sitting in the middle of the table. It looked exactly the way baby dragons looked in pictures in books I had read. It sneezed and a few sparks flew out of its mouth. I hoped Hagrid would get some sense into him and realize that it could easily burn down its house soon.

"Hagrid," I finally said, "how fast do Norwegian Ridgebacks grow, exactly?" Even this didn't seem to concern Hagrid, though when he looked up he saw something that did concern him. Someone had been watching through the curtains at the window, and when Harry had gotten up to check, he announced that it was Malfoy.

* * *

During the next week, I tried my best to convince Hagrid to get rid of the dragon, but he only seemed to become more and more attached to it.

"I've decided to call him Norbert," Hagrid told us one day. The dragon had already grown to be three times bigger than it was at birth, and it wasn't going to fit in the hut very much longer if it kept this up. Finally, Harry decided we should ask Ron's brother Charlie to take to dragon. Charlie worked with dragons in Romania and would know how to deal with it. Plus it would be legal for Charlie to have the dragon. Hagrid was reluctant at first, but finally agreed.

Charlie replied to the letter the next Wednesday. He agreed to take the dragon and instructed us to bring it to the tallest tower Saturday night and his friends would meet us there to take it away at midnight. We replied to Charlie that we would be there and began to plan how to get Norbert to the tallest tower.

* * *

Norbert had bitten Ron, and it was starting to swell. We had to take him to the hospital wing and Madam Pomfrey admitted him, though he told her it was a dog bite. Since he was in the hospital, Harry and I planned on smuggling Norbert to the tower under his invisibility cloak.

Malfoy visited Ron in the hospital wing to laugh at him. He knew about the dragon and threatened to tell Madam Pomfrey, but he didn't. He borrowed one of Ron's books. Unfortunately, when he had gone, Ron realized the letter from Charlie was in the book, which meant that Malfoy knew we were moving the dragon Saturday. It was too late to change the plan though, so all we could do was hope nothing bad would happen.

* * *

When Saturday finally came, Harry and I snuck down to Hagrid's hut under the cloak to get Norbert. Hagrid was not coping very well, he was crying loudly and having difficulty saying goodbye. When we finally got away, we managed to get back into the castle and made our way to the tower. Just before we reached the stairs for the tower, Professor McGonagall appeared, pulling Malfoy by the ear.

"Detention!" she shouted at him. "And twenty points from Slytherin! Wandering around in the middle of the night, how _dare_ you – "she shouted at him.

"You don't understand, Professor, Harry Potter's coming – he's got a dragon!" Malfoy pleaded.

"What utter rubbish! How dare you tell such lies! Come on – I shall see Professor Snape about you, Malfoy!" Professor McGonagall told him, dragging him away.

I was so glad we had the cloak in that moment. We would have been caught. And I was so glad Malfoy had gotten caught. It was a wonderful feeling to know that we were getting away with this and he was getting in trouble.

"Malfoy's got detention! I could sing!" I cried when we reached the top of the tower.

"Don't," Harry said, laughing.

We waited for a while, as we were a little early. Charlie's friends arrived and hooked Norbert's crate to a harness they had rigged to suspend him between their brooms. Finally, they were ready, and they flew off into the night. Harry and I headed back down the stairs, glad that we no longer had to worry about Norbert. I was quite looking forward to sleeping soundly and revising without the nagging worry of the dragon on my mind. I couldn't believe how easy breaking the rules had become.

However, when we reached the bottom of the stairs, I discovered that breaking the rules did indeed still have its consequences. Filch was waiting for us at the bottom, and somehow, in our excitement in being free of the dragon, we had forgotten the invisibility cloak at the top of the tower.

"Well, well, well," Filch whispered as gleefully as a whisper can be. "We _are_ in trouble."


	14. My Very First Detention

**Alrighty, I have written the next chapter and it is here. I was just eating M&Ms and I was thinking how wonderful it would be if I could get a review for every M&M in that package. Anyway, I'll leave that up to you guys :)**

Chapter 14: My Very First Detention

My stomach felt like lead. My intestines were squirming uncomfortably. As Filch led the way to Professor McGonagall's office, I walked as though in a daze. I could tell that my legs were moving, but I was unsure as to what was propelling them forward. For the first time ever, the logical, analytical, reasoning part of my brain shut down, and it was all I could do to make sure I kept breathing.

When we reached Professor McGonagall's office, she started talking to us, but I couldn't hear a word she was saying. It was like I was in my own bubble of silence, a voice in the back of my head my only company. _You broke the rules, you're in trouble. How could you be so irresponsible? _

Professor McGonagall looked furious and I couldn't deal with the fact that it was my actions that had caused this fury. My eyes glazed over and I could no longer tell what was going on around me. My mind just kept repeating to me over and over what I had done and how I was a horrible person.

Eventually I found myself following Harry and Neville back to the common room. How Neville ended up with us, I couldn't figure out, but somehow, my usual curiosity was gone, and I couldn't even be bothered with asking.

Thankfully, my dorm mates were all asleep when I returned to my dormitory. I didn't want to have to talk to them right now. I crawled into my bed and pulled the curtains closed around me. I grabbed at my covers and pulled them up over my head and I curled up into a ball and let my misery wash over me.

I'm Hermione Granger. I get good grades and I study and I spend time with my parents. I don't have friends and wander around after curfew and get in trouble. This never would have happened if I had never become friends with Harry and Ron in the first place. They must have a bad influence on me. Maybe I should go back to the old, lonely Hermione; the Hermione that studies day and night and doesn't smuggle illegal creatures through the school after curfew. With a start, I realized I hadn't written to my parents yet since I returned to the school after the holidays. The old Hermione would have written to them the first day back, I thought to myself.

Finally, mercifully, after hours of lying there, wallowing in my guilt, I finally fell asleep.

* * *

The next morning, I realized something important. Sure the old Hermione was responsible and smart and obedient and everything I prized myself on, but she didn't have to disappear. I didn't want to give up my friends, because I haven't had friends before in my whole life, and it felt really good. I was still me though. One detention wouldn't change my whole life. So I got up and got ready and headed down to the common room to meet Ron and Harry before going to breakfast.

It was bad. It was worse for Harry, because he was famous and everyone knew him, but I still felt like melting into a pile of popsicle goo every time someone recognized me and started glaring. Class was terrible. I always felt like I was being stared at. I could feel eyes boring into me as I sat hunched over my notes. I tried to stay out of the spotlight for a while. I stopped answering questions in class and I stopped trying to correct other people's work when I saw their mistakes. I didn't need any more attention than I was already receiving. Neville had also received a detention with Harry and me for being in the corridors after curfew, and Malfoy would also be joining us. Our detention was the next day at eleven o'clock.

The four of us met Filch in the Entrance Hall, and he led us outside to Hagrid's hut. Filch was talking, but I seemed to have gone back into my bubble. I didn't even realize we had arrived at Hagrid's until Hagrid started talking.

"Abou' time. I bin waitin' fer half an hour already. All right, Harry, Hermione?" he said.

Neither of us replied, and instead, he talked for a moment with Filch. Then Filch returned to the castle, leaving us alone with Hagrid.

"I'm not going in that forest," Malfoy said. He sounded worried, afraid even. Hagrid didn't take this very well and ended up threatening Malfoy, which resulted in his becoming quieter.

Hagrid explained that we were going to be looking for a hurt unicorn. He split us up into two groups, Malfoy, Neville and Fang went one way, Harry Hagrid and I went the other. We ventured into the forest slowly. I knew I was supposed to be looking for a unicorn, but I was more focused on staying right next to Hagrid in case something worse was to appear.

Eventually we arrived at a trail splattered in unicorn blood. Upon seeing it, I became dizzy and a little nauseated.

"You all right, Hermione?" Hagrid whispered, seeing me close my eyes. "Don' worry, it can't've gone far if it's this badly hurt an' then we'll be able ter – GET BEHIND THAT TREE!" He suddenly shouted. He grabbed me and Harry and dropped us behind the tree in question, drawing his arrow and preparing his crossbow. I flattened myself to the tree, finally truly afraid about what I might be about to meat in the forest.

Nothing happened, all I could hear was a strange slithering sound. "I knew it," Hagrid finally muttered. "There's summat in here that shouldn' be."

His words made my stomach tighten until I felt I might pass out. Of all the horrible things that do belong in the forest, we could meet something so terrible that it doesn't belong. We kept walking for a bit and then we ran into a centaur. Ronan, Hagrid called him. Hagrid appeared to be friends with the centaur, so the sudden panic I felt when he first emerged subsided.

Hagrid tried to ask him about the unicorn, but Ronan only replied, "Mars is bright tonight." Then, he added, "The forest hides many secrets."

A second centaur, Bane, arrived and when Hagrid asked him, his reply was the same as Ronan's, "Mars is bright tonight." I knew from my reading that centaurs watched the movement of the stars and the planets to interpret the future.

When Ronan and Bane eventually left, we continued on our path. I started looking around for a sign of the unicorn, really just wanting to get out of the forest as soon as possible, when I saw red sparks shoot up out of the forest far to the right.

"Hagrid! Look! Red sparks, the others are in trouble!" I cried, grabbing Hagrid's arm and turning him to face the source.

"You two wait here!" Hagrid shouted. "Stay on the path, I'll come back for yeh!" Then he ran off into the forest, leaving us alone on the path. Without the protection provided by Hagrid, I felt suddenly exposed, and as though something was going to jump out at me any moment.

"You don't think they've been hurt, do you?" I whispered, finally realizing that red sparks were supposed to be signalling danger.

"I don't care if Malfoy has, but if something's got Neville… It's our fault he's here in the first place," Harry replied. Yes, it was our fault; Harry's fault and my fault. If Neville was attacked, it would be my fault. It was already my fault that Neville was out here at all. Before I could descend any further into the bit of despair I was heading towards, Hagrid returned with Neville, Malfoy and Fang. Apparently, Malfoy had scared Neville, and in his panic, Neville had sent up the sparks.

Hagrid decided to change the groups. He had Harry join him and I and he sent Harry with Malfoy and Fang. I was sorry Harry had to go with Malfoy, but secretly even more glad that Hagrid wasn't making me go into the forest with only Malfoy and Fang.

Harry, Malfoy and Fang split off from us at the first fork in the path and Hagrid, Neville and I continued on the other path. It was mostly silent, except for Neville's irregular and rather heavy breathing. I could tell he was scared to death, but I was too scared myself to offer any comfort.

Suddenly, Malfoy came running and screaming from the forest, apparently following Fang. Hagrid was trying to calm him down to find out where Harry was. Harry was out there, in the forest, alone. But Malfoy was too panicked to calm down enough to say anything coherent. I heard galloping, and I thought I could hear voices, so I ran down the path, hoping with everything I had that it was Harry.

It was. Harry was riding on the back of a new centaur, which I discovered was named Firenze. Hagrid arrived seconds later, having followed me down the path and made sure Harry was alright. Harry and Malfoy had apparently found the unicorn and what was drinking its blood. Hagrid decided it would be best to take us all back to the castle before he examined the unicorn. He knew where it was now, at least.

When we got back to the common room, Ron was waiting, asleep in a chair by the fire. Harry hadn't yet told me the whole story of what had happened, and so he proceeded to tell Ron and I how he had met You-Know-Who in the forest and how he was drinking the unicorn blood to stay alive, and how he had almost killed Harry. He realized that if You-Know-Who was hiding out in the forest that meant Snape wanted to steal the Stone for him – to bring You-Know-Who back to full power.

I was worried, and I couldn't even fathom what would happen if You-Know-Who got to the Stone, but I realized something that made everything better. You-Know-Who was afraid of Dumbledore. He was the only wizard he ever feared back when he was in power, according to the books I had read. If Dumbledore was around, surely You-Know-Who wouldn't be able to do anything. I told Harry and Ron this, and they appeared at least a little comforted.

When I went up to my dormitory, Sally-Anne was awake. When she saw me, she scowled. "I hope you've learned your lesson," she said, clearly still angry about the points I had lost for Gryffindor. I ignored her and pulled my curtains closed.


	15. Exams

**Alright, so here's the next chapter. Hopefully you guys actually like the story. The few reviews I have gotten are positive, so thanks:), but as for everyone else, I wonder sometimes if maybe you're not reviewing because you hate the story. And if that's the case, please let me know what's wrong so I can fix it!**

Chapter 15: Exams

I suppose I should have been worried about the Stone and You-Know-Who and everything, but exams were just around the corner, and the next day I began revising like crazy. I re-read all of my notes for all of my classes for the whole year, as well as re-reading all the assigned textbooks and a few others I thought might be useful. I allowed Harry and Ron to study from my notes as well, because I looked at theirs and they were horrid.

As it came closer and closer to exam time, I became more and more nervous. I almost stopped eating, choosing instead to stay in the library and read. Harry and Ron had to forcefully drag me to the Great Hall if I was going to eat anything at all. I started reading in bed again and – although I didn't tell anyone this – I slept with my notes under my pillow.

All too soon, Monday came around and it was time for my first exam – Herbology. First we had a written exam and then afterwards, we had to do some practical work in the greenhouse. Then after Herbology, we had Charms, which I was sure I did really well on. I even included some information I had read in one of the chapters of _The Standard Book of Spells_ that hadn't been assigned in my essay. The practical exam for Charms was easy – all we had to do was make a pineapple tap dance across the desk. I had practiced many more spells than just that one.

The next day we had Defense against the Dark Arts, but it was only a written exam – Professor Quirrell said he didn't think a practical exam would be necessary. In the afternoon, we had Potions. We had to brew a forgetfulness potion in addition to our written exam. I worried that my potion wasn't thick enough, but Harry was next to me and he insisted it was perfect. When I told him I was sure it was horrible, he rolled his eyes at me and shared a look with Ron. After each exam, I went over it again in my head and looked up the answers in my books. This seemed to really annoy Ron, though I don't know why. I just wanted to know how I had done.

Wednesday morning we had Transfiguration. I felt that I could have done better in the written part, but when I had to transfigure my mouse into the snuffbox; Professor McGonagall said it was wonderful. We had our written Astronomy exam that afternoon, but our practical exam was at midnight. We had to identify constellations with our telescopes. After that exam, around one in the morning, we all piled back into the common room and went to bed to rest before our last exam the next morning – History of Magic.

I fell right asleep as soon as I got into bed as I was extremely tired. Around three in the morning, I woke up suddenly in a panic and grabbed my notes from under my pillow and began to revise. About halfway through, I realized I was revising for Transfiguration and that I had just written that exam the previous morning. I had never switched my Transfiguration notes for my History notes when I came to bed as I was so tired from Astronomy. Instead of switching the notes, however, I just let myself fall back asleep.

The History of Magic exam was much easier than I had anticipated. I had heard from some of the older years that it was frightful, but I suppose that's because everyone sleeps through Professor Binns' lectures. In preparation, I had read four extra books I had found in the library that covered topics I thought might be on the exam, but it turned out I hadn't needed to at all.

"That was far easier than I thought it would be," I said to Harry and Ron once we were finally finished. "I needn't have learnt about the 1637 Werewolf Code of Conduct or the uprising of Elfric the Eager."

"Please don't start this Hermione, we've finally finished," Ron said. "No more revision," he sighed happily as he stretched out on the grass. Harry and I joined him and we watched as Ron's brothers, Fred and George, and their friend Lee, tickled the tentacles of the giant squid.

"I wish I knew what this _means_!" Harry suddenly exclaimed, as he rubbed the scar on his forehead. "My scar keeps hurting – it's happened before, but never as often as this."

"Go to Madam Pomfrey," I said immediately. After all, isn't that why she works here – to help students with their injuries and such?

"I'm not ill," Harry said stubbornly. "I think it's a warning… it means danger's coming…"

I thought he was overreacting. He was all worried about the Stone, but it must be guarded very well, and I'm sure Dumbledore wouldn't allow anything bad to happen to it. We really didn't have to be the ones worrying about this. Ron tried to calm Harry down, but I don't think he was convinced.

We sat there for a while more, until Harry jumped to his feet and started walking away very quickly.

"Where're you going?" Ron asked, trying to get up.

"I've just thought of something," Harry said. "We've got to go and see Hagrid, now."

"Why?" I asked as I got up and raced to catch up with him.

"Don't you think it's a bit odd, that what Hagrid wants more than anything else is a dragon, and a stranger turns up who just happens to have an egg in his pocket? How many people wander around with dragon eggs if it's against wizard law? Lucky they found Hagrid, don't you think? Why didn't I see it before?"

I wasn't sure where Harry was going with this, but I followed after him anyway. Ron continued to question him, but Harry didn't answer, and he continued to run ahead until we reached Hagrid's hut, where Harry began to interrogate Hagrid about the dragon.

After a few questions, finally Hagrid told us what Harry was trying to find out. "So I told him, Fluffy's a piece o' cake if yeh know how to calm him down, jus' play him a bit o' music an' he'll go straight off ter sleep – " Hagrid said.

Now I understood what Harry had been worried about. Hagrid told a stranger how to get past Fluffy. That stranger must have been Snape. And if we were right, Fluffy was the only obstacle Snape didn't know how to get past yet. That meant that the only thing left to stop him was Dumbledore.

Harry realized this as well and said so, and then we headed back to the castle to warn Dumbledore. While we were trying to figure out where Dumbledore's office was, Professor McGonagall came up behind us and asked what we were doing. She revealed that Professor Dumbledore had gone to London to the Ministry. My heart sank. Dumbledore was the only obstacle left.

Finally, Harry decided to just tell her what was going on. After all, maybe McGonagall could help to stop Snape. "Professor – it's about the Philosopher's Stone – "he said.

Before he could continue though, Professor McGonagall ended the conversation, stating that we shouldn't even know about the Stone, that it was safe, and that Dumbledore would be back the next day. It was obvious what had happened – Snape got rid of Dumbledore so that he could steal the Stone that night.

We made a plan. I went to wait outside the staff room where Snape was to try to keep an eye on him and Harry and Ron stood guard outside the third floor corridor, where Fluffy was. Almost as soon as I got to the staff room, though, Snape came out and asked me what I was doing. I told him I was waiting for Professor Flitwick, as Harry, Ron and I had planned, so Snape went back in and got Professor Flitwick for me.

I pretended that I was worried about my exam and that I had done poorly. "Professor, I'm really, really sorry to bother you, but I was worried about my exam, you see. I was particularly worried about question seventeen b), where it asked about _Alohomora_, and I wasn't sure if I was supposed to include the entire history of how the spell was invented or if I was just supposed to explain what the spell did," I said. I made sure to fidget and play with my hair during this speech to make it seem that I was nervous about the exam.

"Well actually Ms. Granger, you included much more that I had meant to be included. All that was needed was a simple explanation, a sentence at most, and you provided me with an entire paragraph. I must say I was quite impressed at the expanse of your knowledge on the subject," Professor Flitwick replied. I continued to act nervous, and Flitwick looked around to see if there was anyone within earshot. "Just between you and me, Ms. Granger, your exam score was one hundred and twelve percent. I assure you, you have nothing to worry about."

At this I smiled a genuine smile. I had scored a hundred and twelve percent. This was amazing! Professor Flitwick patted me on the back then and returned to the staff room, and I had to return to the common room lest Snape come out again and wonder why I was still waiting around if I had already seen Flitwick.

Harry and Ron were both in the common room when I returned. Apparently McGonagall found them guarding the door and made them leave as well. Harry decided there was nothing else to do but to go down the trapdoor tonight and try to stop Snape. Ron and I decided we would go with him. It seemed that none of the teachers were going to help us, or even believe that the Stone was in danger of being stolen, and Dumbledore was away, so You-Know-Who would be able to come back to power.

I knew we would be breaking many school rules, and somehow, I was alright with that. I had finally realized something. If you're doing it for a noble reason, breaking the rules can be okay. When we got caught the first time, and I got detention, we were trying to protect Hagrid from getting in trouble for having a dragon. We were doing a good thing, and I would do it again. Even though we could get in trouble tonight, and I might even end up with another detention, if we saved the Stone and stopped You-Know-Who from returning to power, I would take as many detentions as they gave me and I would take them without complaint. Because sometimes you have to break a few rules in order to do what's right.


	16. Through the Trapdoor

**Alright, well even though I wish I got more reviews, I am going to continue, because writing this story makes me happy. I've also got some good news and some bad news. The good news is I'm going on vacation for the next two months. The bad news is that means I might not update as often as I have been. I don't really have a schedule, I just update when I have a chapter ready and I write when I feel like it, but at my cottage I will have restricted internet access, so I don't know how often I'll be able to get online. I also don't know how much time I'll have to write, because my mother has this habit of forcing me to go outside and do physical activity in the summer, which means no computer :( Apparently, I spend too much time alone in my room on my laptop. Anyway, I guess we'll see how it goes, and if anything, I should be back home by the nineteenth or twentieth of August.**

Chapter 16: Through the Trapdoor

That night, Harry, Ron and I sat in the common room and waited. I decided I should read over my notes in case there was something that could be useful when facing the protection placed on the Stone by the other teachers. I got a few odd glances from other students – since I had just written my last exam and was now revising again – but nobody bothered me. Finally, the room was empty and Harry got the cloak. Just as we were preparing to leave, someone interrupted us.

"What are you doing?" The voice said from the corner of the room. It was Neville. We tried to reason with Neville, I told him he ought to go back up to bed, but he insisted that we were breaking the rules and that he wouldn't let us lose more points for our house. Finally, I realized he was not going to leave us alone, and if we wanted to leave, I would have to do something.

"Neville, I'm really, really sorry about this," I said, raising my wand. "_Petrificus Totalus_." It was the full-Body-Bind curse I had read about in _The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection_. I felt bad that I had to resort to cursing Neville, but this was important. I avoided looking at him as we got under the invisibility cloak and we left the common room.

On the way to the third floor, we ran into Peeves, but Harry took care of him quickly by pretending he was the Bloody Baron. Then finally, we had arrived at the third floor. The door to the room in which Fluffy was kept was already open. We went in and Harry began to play the flute Hagrid had gotten him at Christmas. Almost immediately, Fluffy fell asleep.

Ron opened the trapdoor and Harry decided he wanted to go through first. He handed me the flute and I began to play. I wasn't really making music, more like random sounds. The flute wasn't like the Muggle flute I had learned to play a few years back; this flute didn't have buttons or holes or anything.

Harry dropped down through the trapdoor and when he reached the bottom he called up to us. "It's okay! It's a soft landing, you can jump!" Ron jumped first, as I had the flute, and then I followed. I landed on what was indeed a soft bed of something.

"We must be miles under the school," I said as I tried to determine what we had fallen on.

"Lucky this plant thing's here, really," Ron said. I looked over at Ron when he said this and I saw that the plant was snaking its way around Ron's legs, trapping him in the plant. I thought back to my Herbology notes and realized that this must be Devil's Snare, and that if given the chance, it would kill you by squeezing tighter and tighter and essentially suffocating you.

"_Lucky_!" I shrieked, "Look at you both!" I jumped up and flattened myself against the wall, to get as far away from the plant as possible. It had started to wind around my ankles, but it wasn't yet strong enough to hold me. I watched as the plant continued to trap Harry and Ron further and further. I told them to stop moving, because I remembered that the plant wound faster and tighter when met with resistance.

I tried to remember the rest of my notes. "Devil's Snare, Devil's Snare…" I thought out loud. "What did Professor Sprout say? It likes the dark and the damp – "

"So light a fire!" Harry choked. I looked around, but I couldn't find any wood or matches or anything that might have been useful for lighting a fire.

I told Harry so and Ron bellowed "HAVE YOU GONE MAD? ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT?"

"Oh right," I said, remembering that I could in fact, do magic. I pulled out my wand and thought back to my Charms notes. I remembered the spell I had used to light Snape's cloak on fire at the Quidditch match, and so I did the same spell. In the light and warmth, the plant loosened its grip on Harry and Ron and I could see it retreating. Harry and Ron pulled themselves out of the plant and joined me against the wall.

Then we continued down the passage. It seemed to go on forever, but eventually, we came into a very bright chamber filled with tiny birds flying around. We assumed that they would attack us when we tried to cross the room, so Harry decided to bolt across, but they seemed not even to notice our presence and ignored us, so we followed. The door on the other end was locked, and even _Alohomora_ didn't work on it.

I thought about it. There had to be a way to open the door. There were birds flying around in the room, apparently doing nothing. They had to be connected in some way.

"These birds… they can't be here just for decoration," I said.

We looked up at them for a moment. "They're not birds!" Harry said. "They're keys! Winged keys – look carefully. So that must mean… yes look! Broomsticks! We've got to catch the key to the door!" Ron examined the lock for a moment, and decided that we needed an old-fashioned key, so we all grabbed a broomstick and flew up to where the keys were.

I've never really liked flying that much and I'm not really all that good at it. Harry and Ron were having much more success than I was. I flew slowly and tried my best not to fall. I also stayed much closer to the ground than the boys, as I didn't want my fall to be too large if I were to fall. Finally, Harry found it and he caught it. We unlocked the door and slowly proceeded to enter the next chamber.

It was very dark, but when we stepped in, the lights went on and it was suddenly extremely bright. We found that we were standing on the edge of a large chessboard; the pieces were larger than we were. We were on the black side, facing the white.

Ron announced that we were going to have to play, and that we would have to stand in as pieces. Ron was the expert at chess, so I stayed quiet and let him think. He instructed me to replace the castle in the corner, and Harry was the bishop. Ron decided he would be a knight.

Then the game began. I had hoped it would be like regular Muggle chess, but I suppose that wasn't really a possibility. The pieces were violent and smashed each other to bits. Ron was extremely careful about his plays, and finally, he announced that he had to sacrifice himself in order to win.

Harry and I protested. There must be some other way we could win, but Ron was adamant, and he had set his mind to it. He stepped forward and the white queen struck him on the head, causing him to fall to the floor, unconscious. I heard myself screaming, and my legs tried to move, screaming to my head to allow them to run to Ron and make sure he was alright, but the logical part of my mind protested. I had to stay still until the game was over. So as Harry moved forward to finish the game, I watched Ron and tried to determine how he was doing.

Once the game was over, and we had won, I went to Ron, but there was nothing I could do for him. He had done all this so that Harry and I could continue, so even though I felt horrible leaving him lying there, I followed Harry through the doorway into the next chamber. Of the five teachers that had provided obstacles, we had already passed through three, not to mention Fluffy. That meant there should be two more rooms before we came to the Stone.

The next room smelled horrible. Lying in the middle of the chamber, there was a troll, similar to the one Harry and Ron had saved me from on Halloween. Thankfully, it seemed that Snape had taken care of it, as it was out cold. We stepped around it carefully and proceeded to the next room – the last obstacle.

As soon as we had passed through the doorway, purple flames sprang up, preventing us from turning back. Simultaneously, black flames sprang up in the doorway on the other end of the room, preventing us from continuing as well. In the middle of the room, there was a table lined with potion bottles. Next to them, there was a scroll. I picked up the scroll and read it.

_Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,_

_Two of us will help you, whichever you would find,_

_One among us seven will let you move ahead, _

_Another will transport the drinker back instead,_

_Two among our number hold only nettle wine,_

_Three of us are killers, waiting hidden in line._

_Choose, unless you wish to stay here forevermore,_

_To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four:_

_First, however slyly the poison tries to hide_

_You will always find some on nettle wine's left side;_

_Second, different are those who stand at either end,_

_But if you would move onwards, neither is your friend;_

_Third, as you see clearly, all are different size,_

_Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides;_

_Fourth, the second left and the second on the right_

_Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight._

"Brilliant," I said. I could do this. It was a puzzle. I just had to reason it out. "This isn't magic – it's logic – a puzzle. A lot of the greatest wizards haven't got an ounce of logic, they'd be stuck in here forever."

"But so will we, won't we?" Harry asked.

"Of course not," I said. I could figure this out, easy. "Everything we need is here on this paper. Seven bottles: three are poison; two are wine; one will get us safely through the black fire and one will get us back through the purple."

"But how do we know which to drink?" Harry asked.

"Give me a minute," I told him. He needed to be quiet to that I could work it all out.

I looked back at the paper. The tallest and the smallest weren't poison. The puzzle told me that much. And the tallest one was also the second from the right, so it was the same as the second from the left. That meant it couldn't be the one to go forward or backwards, since there was only one each of those. That meant the tallest bottle was nettle wine, and that the second from the left also had to be nettle wine due to clue number four. And then that meant the bottles to the left of those had to be poison because of clue number one. And the one in the middle had to be poison too, because it had to be to the left of the wine and the other one was the smallest, which couldn't be poison because of clue number three. That left the one on the far right and the third one from the left. But clue number two said that the ones on the ends wouldn't help us go forward, so the one on the right had to go back. That meant that the third one from the left, the smallest bottle, was the one to go forward, through the black flames.

"Got it," I said, once I double checked that I hadn't made a mistake. "The smallest bottle will get us through the black fire – towards the Stone."

"There's only enough there for one of us," Harry said after looking at the bottle in question. "Which one will get you back through the purple flames?" I pointed at the bottle on the far right. "You drink that," Harry told me. I started to protest, he couldn't go on all alone, but he stopped me. "No, listen – get back and get Ron – grab brooms from the flying-key room, they'll get you out of the trapdoor and past Fluffy – go straight to the owlery and send Hedwig to Dumbledore, we need him. I might be able to hold Snape off for a while, but I'm no match for him really."

"But Harry – what if You-Know-Who's with him?" I asked, afraid to let him walk into this alone.

"Well – I was lucky once, wasn't I?" Harry said. "I might get lucky again." I wasn't completely convinced, but I could see I really didn't have another choice. He was right. If we were going to be successful, we needed Dumbledore. I grabbed him and gave him a big hug.

"Hermione!" Harry exclaimed.

"Harry – you're a great wizard you know," I told him. He tried to tell me that I was better, but I shook him off. Just because I was good at school and I studied, that didn't make me great. He was better than me in other ways. I had learned that here, watching him pass through the chambers.

"Me!" I said. "Books! And cleverness! There are more important things – friendship and bravery and - oh Harry – be careful!"

He insisted I drink first. I raised the bottle to my lips and felt a cold chill run down my spine, filling me up with ice. I shivered. I said goodbye, and then I turned around to face the purple flames and I stepped through them. Once I had gotten through, I turned around, but I couldn't see Harry anymore through them, so instead, I stepped carefully around the troll and ran back into the chess room to find Ron.


	17. The Hospital Wing

**Hey, I have five seconds of internet and it's 1:15 in the morning, so here you go. Goodnight!**

Chapter 17: The Hospital Wing

Ron was lying exactly where we had left him, broken pieces of the chessmen remained scattered all around. I ran over to him and bent over to see how he was doing. He was breathing, which was good, but he was still unconscious. I began to shake him, trying to get him to wake up, but it was no use. I called out his name, but he still didn't wake. I tried dragging him, but I've never been particularly strong, and he was too heavy for me to get very far with. Finally, I collapsed beside him and tried to decide how to proceed. I could continue on my own, I suppose, but I hated leaving Ron here all alone.

Then, suddenly, I had an idea. I pulled out my wand, and I hoped this would work. I hadn't tried it yet on anything heavier than a book and it was supposed to be more difficult the heavier the object was. I pointed my wand at Ron, and focusing as hard as I could, I said, "_Wingardium Leviosa_."

After a moment of twitching on the ground, Ron's body slowly rose into the air next to me. I tried making him move back and forth, and it worked. Smiling, I pointed my wand towards the exit and levitated Ron's body ahead of me and down the short corridor. When I reached the room with the keys, though, I realized I had a problem.

In order to get out of here, I was going to have to fly. That was the only way to get all the way up to the trapdoor and past Fluffy. But I couldn't continue to levitate Ron while I was on a broomstick. I could barely even fly at all, and I would need both of my hands to hold onto the broomstick.

I supposed I could try to get Ron onto the broomstick with me, but the chances of one of us sliding off the broom was too high for me to risk it. As I continued to look up at the keys, hoping to get some inspiration, I heard a loud thud.

"Ouch," a voice said from behind me. I spun around to find Ron sitting up on the floor, rubbing his right arm. While I had been trying to figure out how to get out of here, I had forgotten that I was levitating Ron and I had lowered my wand, causing him to crash to the floor.

"Oh, Ron, I'm sorry!" I cried, running over to him. "Are you ok?" I asked, looking at the arm he was rubbing.

"M'fine," he replied. "Next time you want me to wake up though, I'd appreciate it if you didn't drop me from twenty feet in the air."

"Twenty feet?" I exclaimed. "It couldn't have been much more than four!" I could see that Ron was laughing, so I knew he was joking, but I was still worried about his injuries. He was cut up and bruised from the chess game, and now I had dropped him, which I'm sure caused more bruising.

"Wait, Hermione, where's Harry?" Ron asked, finally remembering what was going on. "Why are we back here? What about Snape?"

I explained as quickly as I could about the potions and that Harry had gone on and that we had to owl Dumbledore before it was too late, and then Ron got up and we got on a pair of brooms and fly out to the room with the Devil's Snare.

I was fine until we got to where the trapdoor was, but I was too low to get through it. Ron was much higher than me, and he tried to coax me up, but I was having difficulty convincing my broom to go upwards. Finally, Ron fly down and pulled me onto his broom, which I'm sure wasn't made easy by all the cuts on his arm, and he flew us up and all the way out of the room Fluffy was in, only stopping once we were on the staircases.

Once we were back on the ground, we began to run towards the owlery. The corridors were very empty, and it wasn't until I remembered that it was after curfew that this made sense. As we got closer to the front of the school, we began to hear footsteps coming towards us. I panicked, as if we got caught, we would surely be too late to save Harry. Before we had a chance to hide though, Professor Dumbledore came rushing around the corner.

When he saw us in the corridor, he paused for a moment. "Harry's gone after him, hasn't he?" he asked us. I don't know how he knew what was going on, or why he wasn't upset that we were in the corridors after curfew, but I just nodded and then he hurried away towards the third floor corridor.

"I suggest you head to the hospital wing, Mr. Weasley," I heard him say just as he rounded the corner on the other end of the hall.

Without much further conversation, Ron and I headed to the hospital wing like Dumbledore suggested. When we walked in, Madam Pomfrey almost had a fit.

"Mr. Weasley, how on earth did you end up in this state?" she asked, horrified. We tried to explain, but she didn't really understand what we meant about a giant chess game, and it was clear she hadn't known that the Philosopher's Stone was being kept at Hogwarts.

She led Ron to a hospital bed and began to fix his wounds. She told us that they weren't deep, so he would be fine in about an hour, but since it was the middle of the night, she said we would have to remain in the hospital until morning, as it was against the rules to wander around after curfew.

Once she had finished dealing with Ron, she insisted on examining me too, though I assured her I was fine. Apparently, though, I was wrong. I had a few cuts on my arms that I hadn't even noticed, and Madam Pomfrey insisted on giving us both a Calming Draught.

After she was done with that, she told us to lie down on the beds and sleep, as she had done all that she could. I wanted to go and find Harry and make sure he was alright. I wanted to run around and scream in frustration that I was doing absolutely no help by lying on this bed. Unfortunately, I could do neither of these things, and all I could do was lie there and worry and hope that everything would be okay. Ron fell asleep almost right away, but I wasn't surprised after what he had been through.

As I waited, I watched the door. Madam Pomfrey had gone back to her own bed, but I knew that Harry would be coming through that door sometime. I could only hope he would be alive when he did.

Finally, after what felt like ages, but was probably only about an hour or so, Professor Dumbledore barged in, carrying a limp Harry in his arms. When I saw him, my heart almost stopped. He couldn't be dead, he just couldn't. Not after everything that had happened. Dumbledore deposited him on a bed and woke Madam Pomfrey. She came rushing out and immediately began to tend to Harry. Dumbledore said something to her, and then he was gone again.

I rushed over to Harry's bed, Ron was still asleep. Madam Pomfrey was fixing some of Harry's minor cuts and bruises, but I could see a very significant gash in his shoulder, and he appeared to have lost a lot of blood. I sat in the chair opposite Madam Pomfrey and watched as she worked.

"Is he…?" I tried to ask, but I couldn't bring myself to ask the question.

"He'll be fine," was her response. When she said this, I felt a heavy weight I hadn't realized was there lift off of my shoulders. If Harry had died, I don't know what I would have done. He was one of my only friends. Not to mention the guilt I would have felt for letting him go on alone. The fact that he would be alright made my heart soar.

Madam Pomfrey moved onto his shoulder and performed some kind of spell. Then she bandaged it up and force-fed him a potion, though I don't know what it was. Finally, she was finished. "Well, I've done all that I can do for now, it's just a matter of when he wakes up," she said. She returned to her office, and I noticed that she remained at her desk rather than going back to bed. I continued to sit by Harry's side, hoping he would wake up soon.

At one point, Dumbledore returned and had a long talk with Madam Pomfrey in her office. When they were finished, he came back out, smiled at me, and left yet again. Madam Pomfrey told me to go to bed, so I returned to the bed next to Ron, and she also went to sleep. Eventually, I was able to go to sleep.

* * *

The next morning, when I woke up, I immediately went to see if Harry was awake, but he wasn't. I asked Madam Pomfrey if he had woken up at all and she told me he hadn't. She also told me that she had given Ron something to sleep longer after Professor Dumbledore told her what he had been through. Apparently, he needed rest. I wanted to stay in the hospital with them, but she refused, so I was forced to leave and go to the Great Hall for breakfast.

When I got to the table, I saw that Neville was sitting alone, and I remembered the curse I had performed on him the night before, and again, I felt horrible. I went over to sit with him and tried to apologize.

"Listen Neville, about last night," I began. "I'm really sorry about cursing you, it's just that Harry, Ron and I, we really had to leave last night and…"

I realized I wasn't doing a very good job of explaining myself, so I decided to tell him the whole story. When I was finished, Neville just stared at me.

"Neville?" I asked.

"You're serious? That actually happened?" he asked, his face one of amazement.

"Yes, but Neville, promise you won't tell anyone? I don't know if we're supposed to keep it quiet or not," I said, realizing Professor Dumbledore might not want everyone knowing about this.

After breakfast, I returned to the hospital wing to check on Harry and Ron. Ron had apparently just woken up, and Madam Pomfrey was trying to force him to drink some potion. When Madam Pomfrey was done tending to Ron, she sent us away, telling us that Harry wouldn't be awake anytime soon.

When we entered Gryffindor Tower, we were met by applause. I looked around and I saw Neville standing to the side, an apologetic look on his face. I surmised that he told someone about last night and that now everyone knew. Someone asked where Harry was and I told them that he was still unconscious in the hospital wing, which seemed to dampen everyone's mood a bit.

As soon as I could, I escaped the common room and headed up to my dormitory, where I hoped I could get a little bit of sleep. Two of my dorm mates, Lavender and Parvati, followed me up and began to ask me millions of questions, but I ignored them and pulled the hangings of my bed closed, and eventually, I heard them return downstairs, and I was able to go back to sleep.


	18. Going Home

**Alright, here is the last chapter that pertains to the Philosopher's Stone. Chapter 19 will be the beginning of the Chamber of Secrets. Yay! **

Chapter 18: Going Home

Ron and I visited the hospital wing every three hours or s over the next two days, as classes had finished and we were free to do what we wanted, but still Harry didn't wake. A few times, we crossed paths with Professor Dumbledore, coming or going from the wing. We attended the last Quidditch game of the season – Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw. Without Harry on the team though, Gryffindor played horribly and Ravenclaw won.

Finally, on the third day, when we entered the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey informed us that Harry was awake. Ron almost charged into Harry's area, as he was in a bed behind a set of curtains, blocking him from view, but Madam Pomfrey stopped him.

"No, I'm sorry Mr. Weasley, Ms. Granger, but I cannot allow you to see Mr. Potter. He needs rest and relaxation," Madam Pomfrey told us. Before we could protest, though, Harry called out from behind the curtains.

"Just five minutes," Harry pleaded. Madam Pomfrey went behind the curtains to where Harry was lying to talk to him, while Ron and I stood outside, waiting for her decision.

Finally, she came back out from behind the curtains saying, "But five minutes _only_."

"_Harry_!" I cried when we finally saw him, awake. I wanted to give him a hug, but he still looked very sore and bruised.

"Oh, Harry, we were sure you were going to – Dumbledore was so worried – " I began rambling, unsure what to say.

"The whole school's been talking about it," Ron said. I turned away to hide my blush. I had been the one to tell Neville, which is how everyone found out. "What _really_ happened?" There had been so many rumors flying around about what had happened in the last chamber, but I knew none of them could be true because Harry had been unconscious and he was the only one who had been there.

I was shocked to find out that it was Quirrell and not Snape who had been trying to steal the Stone, though I now understood why I hadn't seen Quirrell in the past few days. When Harry told us what was under Quirrell's turban, I screamed out loud and I got a hard look from Madam Pomfrey.

Then Harry asked about us, so I explained how I had to get Ron and meeting Dumbledore in the Entrance Hall. We talked for a little longer, and then Madam Pomfrey came over and forced Ron and me out, claiming that we had already had fifteen minutes.

* * *

The next day was the end-of-year feast. The Great Hall was decorated in Slytherin colors, as they had the most house points, and therefore won the house cup. Ron and I left a place between us for Harry, hoping Madam Pomfrey would let him come down for the feast. I was talking with Neville when suddenly; a hush fell upon the room. I looked up and saw that Harry had just entered. Then the room burst into conversation, probably everyone was gossiping about Harry, and Harry slipped into the seat we had saved him.

Then Dumbledore stood up and began his end-of-year speech. He announced the points, and when he announced that Slytherin was in first place, they began cheering madly. I felt bad, because if Harry and I hadn't snuck out, Neville wouldn't have snuck out and none of us would have lost points, and we wouldn't be in last place. Then Dumbledore continued.

"Yes, yes, well done Slytherin. However, recent events must be taken into account. Ahem, I have a few last-minute points to dish out. Let me see. Yes, first – to Mr. Ronald Weasley, for the best-played game of chess Hogwarts has seen in many years, I award Gryffindor house fifty points." The entire Gryffindor table cheered for Ron. I did some quick math – we had three hundred and twelve points originally, so now we were up to three hundred and sixty-two points. We were in third place – we had passed Hufflepuff.

"Second – to Miss Hermione Granger," Dumbledore continued. I felt like there were butterflies in my stomach at the mention of my name, "for the use of cool logic in the face of fire, I award Gryffindor house fifty points." When I heard this, I could feel tears coming to my eyes, so I buried my head in my arms so no one would see. I couldn't believe I had actually been recognized in front of the entire school like that, I felt so special.

"Third – to Mr. Harry Potter," Dumbledore said. I pulled my head up again. "For pure nerve and outstanding courage, I award Gryffindor house sixty points." I did the math quickly. Adding my fifty and Harry's sixty, that brought us up to four hundred and seventy-two points – exactly the same as Slytherin. We were tied for first place!

Then, Dumbledore raised his hands, and the room was quiet again. The silence was so strong, I could feel a chill run through my body and I think I even had goose bumps. Just one more point and we would win. Dumbledore began to speak. "There are all kinds of courage. It takes a great deal of bravery stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. I therefore award ten points to Mr. Neville Longbottom."

Neville looked ready to collapse. He was white with shock and was receiving hugs from everyone that could reach him. My eardrums were ready to burst from the amount of noise issuing from our table. I stood and cheered with the rest of my house, a huge smile on my face. I didn't think I could get any happier.

I was wrong, of course. The next day, our exam results were released. I had gotten top marks in every one of my classes; some of them even over a hundred percent. I was so excited to return home and show my parents my achievement. I felt like this was an affirmation that I really did belong in this world, even though I had only just entered it this year. Harry and Ron had gotten decent marks, and I decided it was only because of my help that they had passed at all.

Sooner than I would have thought possible, we were all packed and getting onto the Hogwarts Express and speeding home for the summer holidays. When we got to the platform, it took a while to get off the train, especially with all of our luggage, and then there was a hold-up getting through the barrier, but eventually, we got through.

"You must come and stay this summer," Ron said, "both of you – I'll send you an owl."

"Thanks," Harry replied. "I'll need something to look forward to."

I didn't reply. I wanted to go visit Ron during the summer, but I wasn't sure how my parents would feel, since they hadn't seen me all year.

When we were through the barrier and approaching Ron's family, a little girl, who I assumed was his sister was pointing at Harry, apparently very excited. Harry spoke to Ron's mother for a moment, and then a large man approached.

"Ready are you?" he asked Harry gruffly. I assumed this was his uncle, and that the woman and boy behind him were his aunt and cousin.

"You must be Harry's family!" Mrs. Weasley said.

"In a manner of speaking," Harry's uncle replied. "Hurry up boy, we haven't got all day." Then we walked away, assuming I suppose that Harry would follow him.

"See you over the summer then," Harry said.

"Hope you have – er – a good holiday," I said, still looking at where Harry's uncle had disappeared. I couldn't believe how rude he had been, and I felt bad making Harry return to that. He had told us that he didn't particularly like his relatives, but now I actually understood what he meant.

"Oh, I will," Harry said, a strange grin on his face. "_They_ don't know we're not allowed to use magic as home. I'm going to have a lot of fun with Dudley this summer…" Harry said.

Ron and I waved as he walked away, and then I turned around and spotted my parents. I waved them over and introduced them to Ron, and Ron introduced us to his family properly. His father seemed particularly interested with my parents, and Ron explained that his father worked in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office at the Ministry of Magic and that he was fascinated by Muggles.

Finally, Ron had to tear his dad away from my parents, who I noticed, were seeming a bit overwhelmed, and I promised him I'd write soon. Then dad took my trunk from me and we headed back out to the car and settled in and headed home for the summer.

* * *

**Ta da! That is one seventh of the story complete. Now would be a great time to review as I'll be moving on to the Chamber of Secrets in the next chapter.**


	19. Letters

**Alright, here we go! I've got the first chapter pertaining to the Chamber of Secrets ready to go. This chapter is in a bit of a different format than my usual chapters, but don't worry, this is a one-time thing. I'm not doing this all the time. Just in case it's a bit unclear, it's all the letters that Hermione writes or receives over the entire summer. I thought this would be better than writing two or three chapters about having tea with her parents and re-writing her Charms essay five times until it was perfect. Let me know what you think.**

Chapter 19: Letters

_Dear Ron,_

_I promised I would write to you this summer, so here I am, writing to you. My summer's not terribly interesting yet. Mum and dad are working, so I've begun doing my homework for school. They're planning on taking a couple of weeks off of work to spend some time with me, but for now I'm on my own I suppose. _

_As for you, I suggest you begin your homework soon, because I know you're planning on leaving it until the last minute and I can assure you that would be a bad idea. It's really not all that much, just a couple of essays. I would also suggest that you try reading some of the books on the booklist when it arrives, as it is always good to be prepared. _

_I hope I hear back from you soon._

_Love from, Hermione_

* * *

_Dear Harry,_

_I hope you're doing alright. After unofficially meeting your uncle at King's Cross, I can understand your trepidation in returning to their house this summer. I know you said you were going to threaten your cousin back at the station, and I just hope you have the sense not to take anything too far._

_I'm alright here. I've begun working on my homework, and I urge you to do the same as the summer is sure to pass faster than you would think. I told Ron to as well, and though I'm sure he's ignoring my suggestion, I hope you won't. _

_I hope to hear back from you soon._

_Love from, Hermione_

* * *

_Dear Hermione,_

_You must be crazy! Why are you already working on homework? We have two months before we have to go back to school, we have plenty of time. And I'm not planning on reading the textbooks, no matter how much better prepared you think I'll be, so don't suggest it again. I'll read them when the chapters are assigned. _

_It's good to know you'll have a couple weeks to spend with your parents, are you going to do anything special? I talked to dad, and he said you and Harry are more than welcome to come stay at the Burrow with my family for the second half of the summer. I've already written to Harry, and I'm sure he'll accept seeing as he's staying with those horrible relatives. I know you want to spend time with your parents, but maybe once they're back at work you'll consider visiting?_

_Ginny's absolutely obsessed with Harry. Ever since mum and dad agreed to let me invite you two to the Burrow she's been asking if he's coming. She follows me around the house now all the time, asking about him. She's such an annoying little sister._

_Ron_

* * *

_Dear Ron,_

_Thank you for the invitation to stay with your family, but as I have so little time here with my parents, I think I will have to respectfully decline for this summer. I've barely even seen them and soon it'll be September and we'll be on the train again. I'm sure Harry will be excited to come see you, so you won't be alone all summer._

_As for your homework, I'll stop telling you to do it, but if you leave it until the last minute, you'll regret it. I am not going to let you copy my essays and I am not going to write your essays for you, so I certainly hope you know what you're doing._

_Hermione_

* * *

_Dear Hermione,_

_Have you heard from Harry at all? It's been a week since I owled him about staying at the Burrow and he hasn't replied. I've sent him a second letter, in case the first one got lost, but Errol returned without the letter, so I can only assume Harry received it and didn't answer._

_I don't need your help to write my essays, I can write them perfectly fine on my own, thank you very much. I'll have you know that I've already finished with the Charms essay. _

_I understand that you want to spend time with your parents. I explained to mum and dad and they understand as well. Maybe you can stay with us another year. We'll have to go to Diagon Alley once our booklists come, maybe we can meet there and spend some time? If not, then there's the entire year at Hogwarts._

_Ron_

* * *

_Dear Ron,_

_Harry hasn't replied to my letter either. It's a little strange, I think. I'll write to him again as soon as I've finished this letter. _

_Congratulations on finishing your Charms essay. I've already done Charms, Transfiguration, Herbology and History of Magic. It's too bad we didn't get any homework for Defense Against the Dark Arts though, but I suppose since Harry killed Quirrell at the end of the year and everything, he didn't really have a chance to assign anything._

_Thanks for understanding that I want to spend time with my parents. They're off work now, so we've been spending lots of time together. Right now, though, mum has gone to meet a friend for coffee and dad it getting the brakes on the car checked. _

_I'd love to meet up in Diagon Alley! My parents tend to feel awkward when they're there with me, as they're Muggles, so maybe your parents could talk to them and try to make them feel more comfortable?_

_Love, Hermione_

* * *

_Dear Harry,_

_Why haven't you responded to my letter? I've been in correspondence with Ron and according to him; you've been ignoring his owls as well. What's going on? Is everything all right?_

_I do hope at least that you're working on your homework, the summer's not going to last that long._

_I've decided not to go to the Burrow, but Ron and I thought maybe we could all meet up in Diagon Alley to buy our books? Even if you don't want to go to the Burrow, it would be nice to see you before September. _

_Please reply to me and to Ron. Ron seems worried, and I know I certainly am._

_Hermione_

* * *

_D__ear Hermione,_

_Harry still hasn't responded and Errol keeps coming back from Harry's empty-beaked. I'm not so sure anymore that he's ignoring us. I think something must be wrong at home, maybe it's his uncle. Harry wouldn't ignore us on purpose, I'm sure of it._

_How could you be _upset_ that there's no Defense homework? That's cause for celebration! Less homework means… less homework. Who wants more homework? That's crazy. Also, how could you already have written four essays? What are you even doing with your time? You must be sitting in your room writing all day long. We're not in school, Hermione; you need to have some fun now and then._

_Mum and dad would love to talk to your parents. As I'm sure you saw at King's Cross, dad's fascinated with Muggles. He could talk to them for days on end without getting bored, so no problems there._

_Let me know if Harry owls you,_

_Ron_

* * *

_Dear Harry,_

_What's going on? You haven't sent a single letter to Ron or me all summer. We're worried about you. Whatever it is your relatives are doing, can't you sneak one of us a letter to explain? We're worried, Harry, we want to know what's going on._

_Love from, Hermione_

* * *

_Dear Ron,_

_I think there's something seriously wrong with Harry. Do you think we should do something? Maybe send an owl to Professor Dumbledore? _

_As for my study habits, no I am not spending all my time in my room, I just happen to be more responsible than you, and I don't want to be stuck writing my essays on the train. Also, if we don't have any Defense homework, we're going to forget what we've learned. The point of summer homework is so that we don't forget what we learned in the past year. _

_Mum and dad have gone back to work, so I have more time on my own, and I'm becoming very worried about Harry. Let me know what you think we should do._

_Love, Hermione_

* * *

_Dear Hermione,_

_I'm going to send one last owl to Harry and if he doesn't respond within three days, I'm going to do something. I agree that something must be seriously wrong; I didn't like the look of his uncle back at King's Cross._

_I'm not so sure summer homework can have any justification at all, and I don't believe any of your "remembering" business. They give us summer homework to torture us, there's no other explanation._

_Percy's being a major git and he won't let me have any fun until at least half my essays are written. I don't know why mum and dad had to put him in charge of me while they went to the village. Fred and George got out of doing their homework somehow, but they won't help me, so they're gits too._

_Ginny still won't stop talking about Harry. She keeps pestering me about when he's coming to stay. I wish she wasn't so annoying, be glad you don't have irritating siblings._

_Ron_

* * *

_Dear Harry,_

_If you don't reply to this, Ron and I are going to do something. I think Ron has a plan, but I'm not sure what it is. I hope it involves an authority figure though. We're really worried, so please let us know what's going on._

_Hermione_

* * *

_Dear Hermione,_

_Harry hasn't replied, so I've decided it's about time we went to get him. I've got some help, don't worry, and hopefully, he'll be safe and at the Burrow by tomorrow morning. _

_Wish us luck,_

_Ron_

* * *

_HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY_

_Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore _

_(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)_

_Dear Ms. Granger._

_Congratulations on entering into your second year at Hogwarts. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on 1 September. We look forward to seeing you on the train._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Minerva McGonagall_

_Deputy Headmistress_

* * *

_HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY_

_Second year students will require:_

The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2_ by Miranda Goshawk_

Break with a Banshee_ by Gilderoy Lockhart_

Gadding with Ghouls _by Gilderoy Lockhart_

Holidays with Hags _by Gilderoy Lockhart_

Travels with Trolls _by Gilderoy Lockhart_

Voyages with Vampires_ by Gilderoy Lockhart_

Wanderings with Werewolves _by Gilderoy Lockhart_

Year with the Yeti_ by Gilderoy Lockhart_

* * *

_Dear Ron, and Harry if you're there,_

_I hope everything went all right and that Harry is OK and that you didn't do anything illegal to get him out, Ron, because that would get Harry into trouble, too. I've been really worried and if Harry is all right, will you please let me know at once, but perhaps it would be better if you used a different owl , because I think another delivery might finish your one off._

_I'm very busy with school work, of course, and we're going to London next Wednesday to buy my new books. Why don't we meet in Diagon Alley?_

_ Let me know what's happening as soon as you can,_

_Love from, Hermione_

* * *

_Dear Hermione,_

_Harry's fine, he's here at the Burrow. Wednesday sounds great, we'll meet you outside Gringotts._

_Ron_

* * *

**So there you have it. Chapter 19 and the beginning of the Chamber of Secrets. Please review to let me know what you think of this chapter :)**


	20. Diagon Alley

**Hey guys, sorry it's been a while, but I've finally got the next chapter ready. I didn't get any reviews on the last chapter :( so I don't know how you guys felt about the weird format, but I guess nobody hated it or you would have told me... right?**

Chapter 20: Diagon Alley

Wednesday morning, I woke up early and eagerly dressed in my school robes, excited to enter the wizarding world again after a month in the Muggle world. I was also looking forward to seeing Harry and Ron. Ron never really explained what had happened with Harry in his letter, and I was very curious.

I was also excited just to be seeing my friends again. In the month I had spent with my parents and spending time on my own in town or in my room, I had become a little lonely. Before I had friends, I didn't feel lonely when I was alone, probably because I had never experienced friendship. I missed it. Letters are great, but being with your friends is much better.

I was anxious all through breakfast, and then finally, around ten thirty, my parents were finally ready and we left for Diagon Alley. We went through the Leaky Cauldron and then headed for Gringotts, to meet Harry and Ron. When we got there, I discovered that we had arrived first, so we stood at the top of the steps, outside the bank and waited for the others.

We didn't have to wait long. I was looking around the Alley, hoping to locate one of them, when I saw Harry and Hagrid emerging from the crowd, so I ran down to meet them.

"Harry! Harry! Over here!" I called as I ran towards them. He was covered in what appeared to be soot, his hair was even messier than usual, and the lenses of his glasses were cracked. "What happened to your glasses? Hello Hagrid… Oh, it's _wonderful_ to see you two again… Are you coming into Gringotts, Harry?" I asked.

"As soon as I've found the Weasleys," Harry replied. This comment confused me. I had thought that Harry was staying with the Weasleys. Something must have happened, I surmised, as he was so dirty.

"Yeh won't have long ter wait," Hagrid said, grinning at something behind me. I spun around, and saw Ron and the rest of his family running towards us.

"Harry," Ron's father panted as he came to a stop. "We _hoped_ you'd only gone one grate too far… Molly's frantic – she's coming now."

"Where did you come out?" Ron asked.

"Knockturn Alley," Harry replied. I realized that Harry probably got lost in the Floo Network. I had read about the Floo Network in _Modern Methods of Magical Transportation_.

"Brilliant," Ron's twin brothers, Fred and George, said.

"We've never been allowed in," Ron said.

"I should ruddy well think not," Hagrid replied.

"Oh, Harry – oh, my dear – you could have been anywhere – " Ron's mother said as she arrived with Ron's younger sister, Ginny.

Mrs. Weasley began to brush the soot off of Harry's robes and Mr. Weasley fixed Harry's glasses.

"Well, gotta be off," Hagrid announced. "See yer at Hogwarts!" He walked back down the street and was soon lost in the crowd.

"Guess who I saw in Borgin and Burkes?" Harry asked Ron and me in an undertone while we climbed back up the stairs to Gringotts. "Malfoy and his father," He told us before we could guess.

"Did Lucius Malfoy buy anything?" Mr. Weasley asked, apparently listening to our conversation.

"No, he was selling," Harry replied.

"So he's worried," Mr. Weasley said, smiling a little bit. "Oh, I'd love to get Lucius Malfoy for something…"

"You'd be careful Arthur," said Mrs. Weasley. "That family's trouble, don't go biting off more than you can chew.

Mr. Weasley began to retort, but then we reached the top of the steps and he was distracted by my parents. He had met them before at King's Cross, but he seemed just as fascinated with them now as he did then. We went into the bank and my parents and I headed to the exchange counter to change our Muggle money for wizard money.

"We must have a drink! What's that you've got there? Oh, you're changing Muggle money. Molly look!" Mr. Weasley exclaimed, pointing excitedly at the notes in my father's hand.

"Meet you back here," Ron said as he and Harry followed the Weasleys down to their vaults. I was actually a little jealous of them, for having vaults in Gringotts. I supposed when I was older I would open up my own vault, but I was sure it would be fascinating to go underground and see them.

We exchanged our money quickly and my father gave me enough to cover my books and supplies and some extra to spend during the year. When we were finished, we went back out to the steps to wait for the others. When they emerged, Mr. Weasley insisted on taking my parents for a drink, and they seemed happy enough to go off with him. Mrs. Weasley told us to meet them at Flourish and Blotts in an hour, and then Harry, Ron and I headed down the street on our own.

Harry bought us all ice creams at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, and Ron stared at a Quidditch window display until I had to physically drag him away from it. We went into a supply shop and bought new quills and ink and parchment. Harry and Ron insisted on going into the joke shop, where we met up with Ron's brothers briefly. We also went to the Apothecary to stock up on potions ingredients.

After an hour, we headed to Flourish and Blotts. When we got there, we discovered that Gilderoy Lockhart would be signing copies of his autobiography for the afternoon. I became very excited, as he had written seven of the eight books on the booklist.

"We can actually meet him!" I exclaimed to Harry and Ron. "I mean, he's written almost the whole booklist!"

"Calmly, please ladies… don't push, there… mind the books now…" a middle-aged wizard said, apparently a worker at the store.

Harry, Ron and I managed to get into the bookshop and grabbed a copy of one of the books we would need and we lined up with the adults.

Gilderoy Lockhart came out from the back room and sat at the table that was set up, and a photographer came and began taking pictures of him. Ron muttered something when the photographer stepped on his foot, which caused Lockhart to look up and he spotted Harry.

"It _can't_ be Harry Potter?" he said, apparently stunned. He grabbed Harry by the arm and pulled him over to where he was standing. The photographer began to take photographs of Harry and Lockhart together.

"Why is your friend having his picture taken with that man?" mum leaned over and whispered to me while everyone's attention was on Harry.

"I'll explain later," I sighed. I hadn't ever told mum and dad about Harry's fame, I had figured they wouldn't really understand.

"Ladies and gentlemen, what an extraordinary moment this is!" Lockhart said, with his arm slung over Harry's shoulders when the photographs were finished being taken. "The perfect moment for me to make a little announcement I've been sitting on for some time! When young Harry here stepped into Flourish and Blotts today, he only wanted to buy my autobiography – which I shall be happy to present him now, free of charge; he had no idea that he would shortly be getting much, much more than my book, _Magical Me_. He and his school fellows will, in fact, be getting the real, magical me. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have great pleasure and pride in announcing that this September; I will be taking up the post of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!"

Now I understood why we had to buy seven of Gilderoy Lockhart's books. I looked forward to reading them and discovering who this man even was, apparently he was quite famous.

I saw Harry make his way away from Lockhart and reach Ginny, where he dumped all the free books he had been given into her cauldron, presumably as he wanted to buy his own. I saw Malfoy approach him and Ginny, and Ron and I began to fight our way over to where they stood. It was difficult as we were each carrying stacks of the books we needed to purchase.

"Bet you're surprised to see Harry here, eh?" Ron asked Malfoy when we had arrived.

"Not as surprised as I am to see you in a shop, Weasley," Malfoy retorted. "I suppose your parents will go hungry for a month to pay for that lot."

Ron turned beet red and dropped his books into Ginny's cauldron. He began to advance on Malfoy, and I saw that he was preparing for a fight, so Harry and I reached out to restrain him, grabbing the back of his jacket.

"Ron!" Mr. Weasley called out as he approached. "What are you doing? It's mad in here, let's go outside."

"Well, well, well – Arthur Weasley," a man said, appearing behind Draco. They looked so alike; I had to assume he was Malfoy's father.

"Lucius," Mr. Weasley said, confirming my assumption.

"Busy time at the Ministry, I hear," Mr. Malfoy said, sneering. "All those extra raids… I hope they're paying you overtime?" He picked up a book from Ginny's cauldron and turned it over. It was very old, and obviously second-hand. "Obviously not," he said. "Dear me, what's the use of being a disgrace to the name of wizard if they don't even pay you well for it?"

"We have a very different idea of what disgraces the mane of wizard, Malfoy," Mr. Weasley said, though he was even redder than Ron.

"Clearly," Mr. Malfoy said. His eyes focused in on my parents, who were standing not too far away, listening to the conversation, clearly nervous. "The company you keep Weasley… and I thought your family could sink no lower – "he said. I could have screamed and shouted. I wanted to hit him, but I didn't. I knew there were wizards who didn't like Muggles, but he was insulting my parents while they were standing right there, without a clue what was going on.

Just then, Ginny's cauldron went flying because Mr. Weasley had attacked Mr. Malfoy just like I had wanted to. The assistant tried to stop them, but in the end, it was Hagrid who pulled them off each other. He gave Ginny back her book and stalked out of the shop.

"Yeh should've ignored him, Arthur," Hagrid said to Mr. Weasley. He continued to talk to him, but I turned my attention to my parents. They were visibly shaking, and I knew they would not be comfortable coming into the wizarding world again very soon, but I was also confident that they would be fine back in the comfort of their own home. They' couldn't have understood what Mr. Malfoy was going on about, and I wasn't about to tell them.

Harry and the Weasleys travelled back to the Burrow by Floo Powder, and I followed my parents out of the Leaky Cauldron and back to the car. The ride home was a quiet one, and while mum prepared dinner, I sent up to my room to begin to read Lockhart's books.

When I came down to dinner, I could see that mum and dad were feeling better and that they had settled down. Mum began to serve the chicken onto our plates and we sat down at the table.

"So, Hermione, tell me," mum said, and I could feel my stomach twisting up. I didn't want to have to tell them about pureblood prejudice and all of that. "What's so special about your friend, Harry?" she asked.

I almost laughed out loud. Back in the store, it seemed that explaining Harry's story would be horrible, but now I was much more inclined to tell that story than talk about more personal subjects. I launched into a simple and heavily edited version of Harry's story and the rest of dinner passed without a problem.

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	21. Where are they?

**Hey guys. It's raining :( Not so fun when you're on vacation... So I wrote this chapter :) **

Chapter 21: Where are they?

The rest of the summer passed very quickly, and before I knew it, it was September the first and it was time to get into the car to go to King's Cross. When we got to the barrier, the three of us went through it in a line. I looked around the platform, but I could see that Harry and the Weasleys weren't there yet. They still had twenty minutes, and I figured they were just running a little late.

I hugged mum and dad goodbye and dad helped heave my trunk onto the train. I promised I would write to them more, as I had only written a couple of times last year, and they in turn promised to write back, no matter how weird it was to send mail by owl. I found an empty compartment and settled my stuff in it, and then I returned to the platform.

When there was only about five minutes left before the train would leave, I saw Percy come through the barrier, followed by Fred and George. I headed in that direction, and Ron's parents emerged with Ginny, but Harry and Ron did not follow them. The train whistle blew, and though I was worried that Harry and Ron hadn't come through, I had to get back on the train.

I helped Ginny with her trunk, and we both got onto the train before it started to move. I continued to watch the barrier, but Harry and Ron never came through it. I saw a worried Mr. and Mrs. Weasley eying it as well. I located my parents in the crowd and waved goodbye, though I do not think they were able to see me.

When the train had rounded the corner and the platform had disappeared from sight, I turned to Ginny.

"Where are Ron and Harry?" I asked.

"I don't know, they were right behind me," she replied, wrinkling her forehead.

Before I could say anything else, someone came up behind me, saying "Hermione! " I turned around and found that it was Neville.

"Hello Neville," I said, and I decided we ought to go back to my compartment. Neville lugged in his things, and Ginny, who had followed us down the hallway, also rolled in her trunk and settled in.

"Neville," I said, "this is Ginny. Ginny, this is Neville," I said, introducing them. I was surprised that Ginny had followed me in, as I barely knew her, but I suppose since Ron was mysteriously missing and her older brothers had gone off, she had nowhere else to go.

They smiled at each other and Neville nodded his head. Then he turned back to me. "Where are Harry and Ron?" he asked.

"I don't know," I said, "Ginny said they were right behind her, but they never came through the barrier. Maybe we should go look for them," I suggested. I hoped that at least they were somewhere on the train and that I had just missed them.

Neville and Ginny agreed to come with me, and so we began to walk down the train, looking in the compartments.

We came across Seamus, Dean, Lavender, Parvati, Sally-Anne and Lily all together in one compartment a little way down and stopped to talk for a minute, but continued on our way shortly. We also passed Lisa Turpin's compartment, but she was with her Ravenclaw friends, Sue Li, Kevin Entwhistle, Stephen Cornfoot and Morag MacDougal. When I saw her in the train, I was hit with a memory of my first train ride, when I was with Neville and Lisa. I barely spoke to Lisa now though, so we kept going.

When we got to the end of the train, we still hadn't found them, so we returned to our compartment and decided that they weren't on the train, and as worrisome as that was, we couldn't do anything about it. Ginny seemed exceptionally worried, and I tried to reassure her that they would be fine, and that even if they missed the train, they would get to school one way or another.

When lunchtime came around, I bought some pumpkin pastilles and Neville got three chocolate frogs. When Ginny shook her head that no, she didn't want anything, I passed her two of my pastilles. She took them gratefully and smiled.

When the train arrived in Hogsmeade, Neville and I followed the older years to the flying carriages, and Ginny moved nervously into the crowd of first years being called by Hagrid. They would be taking the boats to the school. Neville and I got a carriage together and sped off to Hogwarts. When we arrived, we entered the Great Hall and sat at the Gryffindor table. I looked up and down the table and around the room, but I couldn't see Harry or Ron anywhere. I watched the door, but they never turned up.

"Relax, Hermione, I'm sure they're fine," Neville said, but I wasn't all that reassured. I noticed that Fred and George weren't all that concerned with their brother's disappearance, and Percy was too far away for me to tell if he was worried or not.

Professor McGonagall announced that the Sorting would begin in a moment, and then the first years filed into the Hall. I spotted Ginny in the middle of the crowd, and I tried to catch her eye to smile encouragingly, but she never turned my way.

Professor McGonagall explained the ceremony to the first years, and then she began to call names off her list. The first student, Allen, Mary, was sorted into Hufflepuff. The first new Gryffindor was Creevey, Colin. As the sorting went on, I paid half-attention to the ceremony, and the rest of my attention was darting around the room, trying to figure out where Harry and Ron could be. While Lovegood, Luna was sorted into Ravenclaw, I noticed that Snape was absent from the head table, and I thought that rather strange.

When it was Ginny's turn to be sorted, I gave her my full attention, and when she was pronounced a Gryffindor, I clapped with the rest of the table, and smiled when she looked my way. She settled in with the rest of the first years on the end of the table, and soon the sorting was over.

The feast began, and I noticed that Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall disappeared for a little while. Then Dumbledore returned with Snape, and a short while later, McGonagall came back too.

When the feast was over, I got up with the rest of the students and began to file out of the hall. I was still looking around for a sign of Harry or Ron, so I wasn't paying much attention to my immediate surroundings.

"Looking for Weasley and Potter, Granger?" a voice said as I reached the doorway. I turned to see Malfoy standing in front of me.

"That's none of your business, Malfoy," I said, not wanting everyone to know that something was wrong.

"You mean you don't know where they are?" Malfoy asked, mockingly.

"What are you on about, Malfoy?" I asked, knowing he was going somewhere with this and wanting it to be over with.

"They've been expelled, Granger, _expelled_. They flew a car to school and crashed it into the Whomping Willow, and now they're expelled," Malfoy said gleefully.

I couldn't believe it. I wouldn't believe it. Harry and Ron couldn't be expelled; Malfoy was probably just making up stories. I pushed my way out of the Hall and began to run to the Gryffindor common room. If Harry and Ron were back, that's where they would be.

On my way, I saw Percy, and I realized that I didn't know the password, so I asked him what it was, and he told me it was _wattlebird_. He was leading the first years, so they were going quite slowly, and I ran ahead, wanting to get to the common room quickly. As I rounded the corner and approached the fat lady, I finally found Harry and Ron standing in front of the portrait.

"_There_ you are! Where have you _been_? The most _ridiculous_ rumours – someone said you'd been expelled for crashing a flying _car_," I said as I approached, relieved to finally see them again, and safe, and not expelled like Malfoy said.

"Well, we haven't been expelled," Harry said. He didn't deny the rest though.

"You're not telling me you _did_ fly here?" I said, horrified at the thought. What on earth could possess them to decide to fly a car to school?

"Skip the lecture and tell us the password," Ron said. This only made me angrier as it was clear that Ron didn't even seem to care that what he had done was wrong.

"It's _wattlebird_, but that's not the point – "I couldn't finish my thought, because when I said the password, the portrait swung open to reveal the common room filled with raucous applause. Harry and Ron were pulled into the crowd and congratulated for their feat.

Harry and Ron headed up to their dorm quite quickly, calling a hasty goodnight back to me, and I decided I would worry about talking to them tomorrow. For tonight, at least they weren't expelled, though I'm sure they came quite close.

I headed up to my own dorm and tried to fall asleep, though it was hard as Sally-Anne and Lily were gossiping about Harry and Ron's 'adventure' and Lavender and Parvati were giggling like crazy by the window. Eventually, though, I did manage to drift off.

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	22. School Again

**Hey hey, here's chapter 22! And... enjoy!**

Chapter 22: School Again

The next morning, I brought my copy of _Voyages with Vampires_ down to breakfast. I simultaneously wanted to pointedly ignore Harry and Ron in an attempt to impress upon them that what they did was wrong, and read more about Gilderoy Lockhart's adventures. Since I had gotten my books from Diagon Alley, I had read them all twice and I was astounded at all the things Lockhart had done in his life.

It seemed that most witches were taken with his for his good looks and the fact that he had won _Witch Weekly's_ Most-Charming-Smile Award five times in a row, but I found that it was his feats that were amazing.

When the post arrived, the Weasley family's owl fell into my jug of pumpkin juice. Ron had sent me letters over the summer with Errol, so I knew he was getting old and wasn't the best flier out there.

"Errol!" Ron said, as he rescued it from the jug and reached for the letter it was delivering. "Oh no – "he exclaimed.

I poked Errol with my finger, and saw that he was still breathing. "It's all right, he's still alive," I said, though I was pretty sure his time was coming, the way he kept crashing. One time, he flew straight in through my bedroom window and didn't stop until he hit the opposite wall.

"It's not that – it's _that_," Ron said, pointing at the letter. I wasn't sure what was so bad about a letter, even if it was from his family, who were probably disappointed in him for flying the car to school. Harry was confused too, and asked what was wrong, to which Ron replied that the letter was a Howler.

My eyes widened at his words. I had read about Howlers, and they were usually reserved for the most extreme circumstances. In all of last year, not one student had received a Howler, and Ron was going to have to listen to it in the middle of the Great Hall with everybody watching.

Ron opened it and it went off. Mrs. Weasley's voice screamed at him and filled all the corners of the Hall. Everybody stopped and turned to watch Ron's humiliation. Even Harry was mentioned, and I saw him look down at his lap, both trying to make it appear as though he was not a part of what was going on, but also I think, feeling more than a little guilty. Ron simply looked horrified.

When the Howler had finished and had burst into flames, it took a moment, but everyone eventually went back to their own business and the attention turned away from Ron and Harry. Ron was still staring at the ashes of the Howler as though shocked that his mother was so angry.

"Well, I don't know what you expected, Ron, but you – "I began, but Ron cut me short.

"Don't tell me I deserved it," he said. That was in fact exactly what I was going to say, and I would have said it, but I could see that behind Ron's look of annoyance at me, he really did feel bad about what he had done, so I decided to let it go.

Professor McGonagall came around with our timetables, and after looking it over quickly, Harry, Ron and I left the Great Hall and headed to the greenhouses for Herbology with the Hufflepuffs. Professor Sprout wasn't there when we arrived, and soon arrived with Gilderoy Lockhart – Professor Lockhart. He had apparently been helping her to fix up the Whomping Willow.

Professor Sprout announced that we would be working in Greenhouse Three, and I felt a shiver of excitement course through me at this. Greenhouse three was supposed to be filled with much more interesting plants than those we had worked with so far and I looked forward to working with them.

As we entered, Professor Lockhart called Harry back for a moment, and once we had all assembled around the Greenhouse, Professor Sprout waited until Harry had arrived to begin the lesson.

The lesson began – we were learning about Mandrakes – and I felt myself relax and ease right into the lecture. I had missed being in class during the summer, and I found raising my hand and answering questions refreshing, finally able to share some of the knowledge I had acquired during my summer reading.

After the lecture part of the class, there was a demonstration, and then we began to practice repotting Mandrakes. Harry, Ron and I were joined at our tray by Justin Finch-Fletchley, a Hufflepuff, who shook my hand and complemented me, making me smile widely. We didn't get to talk to him for long as we had to put on our earmuffs, and by the end of the class, I was glad we were going to Transfiguration and that we would be using our wands instead of our hands.

I went down to the Great Hall for lunch and began colour-coding my timetable. Colour-coding happens to be one of my favorite things to do. Harry and Ron came down a little bit after me and I showed them all the coat buttons I had transfigured in class.

When Ron asked what we had that afternoon, I told him immediately that we had Defence Against the Dark Arts. I was very much looking forward to the class. Then Ron saw my timetable and noticed that I had drawn hearts around each of Professor Lockhart's classes. I hadn't really done it consciously, as I was colour coding my timetable, they had just happened, and I grabbed my timetable away from Ron, my face heating up in embarrassment.

After we ate, we still had some time before class, so we went out into the courtyard and I went back to reading _Voyages with Vampires_, as we had Defence next. A small boy, who I vaguely recognized from the Sorting came over and introduced himself as Colin Creevey. He began to talk to Harry, but I remained focused on my book. Then Malfoy came over, but I only had two paragraphs left of the chapter I was on, so I chose not to pay attention to what was going on around me.

When I finally finished, I shut my book and looked up to see that Ron was preparing to curse Malfoy and that Professor Lockhart was approaching. "Look out," I whispered to Ron.

When Lockhart arrived, he had Colin take a picture of him and Harry – apparently the whole fuss had been because Colin wanted a picture. Then Lockhart began to steer Harry along with him as he entered the castle and Ron and I were left behind to gather up our things and follow, as we did have Defence next.

When we did arrive, we found Harry sitting in the back of the class, hiding behind his seven textbooks. I could have laughed, but I didn't, because Professor Lockhart was starting the class, and I focused all my attention on him.

He started by handing out a quiz with fifty four questions on it. I smiled, and began to fill it out, I loved pop quizzes. I knew there would be a reward for spending all of lunch reading _Voyages with Vampires_. The answer to the second question, '_What is Gilderoy Lockhart's secret ambition?'_ was in the chapter I had just read. It was to rid the world of evil and market his own range of hair-care potions.

When half an hour had gone by – I had finished after fifteen minutes and had spend the second half of the time looking it over – Lockhart collected the quizzes and began to look through them. When he got to mine, he praised me for knowing his secret ambition, then looked over the rest of it and announced that I had received full marks. Then he gave me ten points for Gryffindor. I felt a rush of pride that was familiar, and yet different. I was honored to be recognized by such a famous and distinguished wizard.

Then he began to teach. There was a cage at the front of the room, and told us he would be teaching us how to fight dark creatures. I wondered with curiosity and a bit of apprehension as to what was in the cage. Perhaps an Erkling, which lures children to it with a high-pitched cackle to be eaten, or maybe a Pogrebin, a demon that makes their prey fall into a state of despair before attempting to devour them.

Professor Lockhart pulled the cover off of the cage to reveal a cage full of Cornish Pixies. As far as I was aware, they weren't so much dangerous as they were irritating and destructive. Before any of us had a chance to prepare, Lockhart opened the cage and released them into the room – a test I supposed, to see how we would face up to them.

Everything went crazy. The pixies began wreaking havoc on the room and students ran away from them screaming. A few of them even pulled Neville up to the ceiling by his ears and hung him from the candelabra. Finally, Professor Lockhart pulled out his wand and said an incantation I had never read about, but the pixies grabbed his wand, and I could only assume they had interrupted the spell.

The bell rang, and everyone began to run for the door. Harry, Ron and I were the last ones there, and Professor Lockhart asked us to round up the pixies, as he rushed into his office.

"Can you _believe_ him?" Ron asked when he was gone.

"He just wants to give us some hands-on experience," I said. I raised my wand and used a Freezing Charm on a couple of pixies that were coming my way, and put them back in the cage. It wouldn't be very helpful if Professor Lockhart took care of the pixies, then we would never learn.

"Hands on? Hermione, he didn't have a clue what he was doing," Harry said. I couldn't believe that. It was clear that he was going to perform a spell before the pixies grabbed his wand. And besides, he's fought vampires and werewolves and trolls and all sorts of horrible creatures. Pixies were probably too easy for him.

"Rubbish," I replied. "You've read his books – look at all those amazing things he's done…" I continued to freeze the pixies and stuff them back in the cage, which was filling up surprisingly fast.

"He _says_ he's done," Ron replied in an undertone. I chose to ignore that comment as I froze the last of the pixies and we headed back to common room to get started on our homework.

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	23. Mudblood

**Hey guys, here's chapter 23! Impressed I got it ready so quickly?**

Chapter 23: Mudblood

We didn't have much time during our first week back, so when the weekend finally arrived, Harry, Ron and I decided to go to visit Hagrid. We had planned on going Saturday morning, so when I awoke I dressed to go outside, and then I descended to the common room. Ron came down a few moments later with a note in his hands from Harry saying that he had to go to Quidditch practice.

Ron and I decided to get something to eat in the Great Hall and then to go outside to watch the practice. We each had a plate of the eggs that had been prepared for breakfast, and then we spread some marmalade on our toast and took it with us as we crossed the grounds to the Quidditch pitch. When we arrived, the pitch was empty, so we assumed they had finished practice and were getting cleaned up.

I followed Ron into the stands and we sat down to wait for Harry. The first year boy, Colin Creevey, was sitting high up in the stands as well, holding his camera.

"Hey, you're Harry Potter's friends, aren't you?" Colin called down to us when he saw me looking.

I nodded and turned away, but he continued.

"Do you think Gryffindor will win this year? I think they will, especially with Harry on the team. I hear he's an amazing flier. I've never flown, I don't even have a broom," he said.

I was going to turn around and answer him, after all, that would be the polite thing to do, but that was when the Gryffindor team emerged from the changing rooms, wearing their Quidditch gear.

"Aren't you finished yet?" Ron called to Harry. I wondered what could have happened to take them so long to start the practice.

"Haven't even started. Wood's been teaching us new moves," Harry replied. I wondered how many different moves they could have learned that would have taken over an hour. Sure, Quidditch isn't exactly something I'm very familiar with, but it the theory seems simple enough; throw the Quaffle, hit the Bludgers, catch the Snitch.

"Merlin, what could Wood possibly have been teaching them in there that would take that long?" Ron asked, more to himself than to me, as the team kicked off into the air. I decided not to reply as my answer wouldn't really be all that helpful.

Up at the top of the stands, Colin had begun taking pictures of the team practicing, which I noticed had caused a bit of a panic for Wood, thinking that he was a spy, but this was all disregarded when the actual Slytherin Quidditch team strode out onto the pitch.

Wood flew over to where they were standing and landed. The rest of the team followed. They began to argue about something, but they were too far away for me to hear.

"What do you reckon this is all about?" Ron asked, leaning forward, trying to get a better view. Then the older Slytherin players stepped aside, and Malfoy strode forward, dressed in Quidditch robes like the rest of them. I did a quick head count and realized in horror that Malfoy was on the team.

When Malfoy had been revealed, Ron had stood up and began to make his way out of the stands. I quickly followed suit and we walked across the pitch to where everyone was standing.

"What's happening?" Ron asked when we arrived. "Why aren't you playing? And what's _he_ doing here?" At the last question, he turned to glare at Malfoy.

"I'm the new Slytherin seeker, Weasley," Malfoy said. "Everyone's just been admiring the brooms my father's bought our team."

I looked at the broom in his hand, and I saw that the handle said _Nimbus Two Thousand and One_. I didn't know much about broom quality, but I knew that Harry's _Nimbus Two Thousand _had been top of the line last year, so I could only assume that these were the newest and best model out there.

"Good, aren't they? But perhaps the Gryffindor team will be able to raise some gold and get new brooms too. You could raffle off those Cleansweep Fives; I expect a museum would bid for them."

I knew that money, or lack thereof, was a sensitive issue for Ron, and I could see that he was getting very red in the face, so I stepped in.

"At least no one on the Gryffindor team had to _buy_ their way in. _They_ got in on pure talent," I said.

Malfoy's smirk turned into a frown. "No one asked your opinion, you filthy little Mudblood," Malfoy practically spat in my face.

Immediately following this comment, there was chaos. Fred and George lunged at Malfoy, and the Slytherin captain, Flint, had to dive in between them to stop them strangling Malfoy. Alicia was shrieking and Angeline and Katie were staring at Malfoy in shock, their eyes wide. Ron had grabbed his wand and cast a curse at Malfoy.

Instead of hitting Malfoy, though, Ron's broken wand backfired and he hit himself. He flew backwards and landed sprawled on the ground.

"Ron! Ron! Are you all right?" I cried, running over to him. When he opened his mouth to answer, though, instead of words, three medium-sized slugs fell out of his mouth. I didn't know what to do. I had read about this spell in the very back of _The Standard Book of Spells, Grade Two_, and it was supposed to be on the curriculum for the end of the year, as it was a very difficult spell, almost third year material. And now, instead of the steady stream of twenty slugs that was supposed to fall from his mouth before the spell wore off, he was burping them up two or three at a time and it seemed that they weren't stopping.

I also wondered how Ron had come across the spell. I had of course, encouraged him to read the textbooks before the beginning of term, but he had refused me point blank. This suggested that maybe he actually had taken my advice and read a little bit in advance. Upon realizing this, I felt a kind of warmth spread through me, but it didn't last more than a microsecond as Ron was still lying on the ground burping up slugs.

"We'd better get him to Hagrid's, it's nearest," Harry said. I nodded and grabbed one of Ron's shoulders – Harry took the other – and together, we helped Ron up and towards Hagrid's hut. Colin showed up and tried to talk to Harry as usual, but Harry just pushed him away and we continued supporting Ron.

When we got to Hagrid's, Professor Lockhart was just leaving, and Harry began to pull us into the bushes to avoid him. Harry had been trying to avoid him all week. I thought about protesting, after all, Lockhart was a teacher, he could probably help us, but in the end, I hid with Harry and Ron, mostly because I knew that Ron didn't like Lockhart much either and he was the one who needed to help.

Once Lockhart had gone, we knocked on Hagrid's door and he let us in. When we explained that Ron had messed up a spell, Hagrid understood and handed Ron a bucket.

"Better out than in," Hagrid said. "Get 'em all up, Ron."

I tried to think of something that could help, but even if Ron had done the spell right, the counter-spell was not in the second-year curriculum. I would have to search the library to find it, and even then, it would be a much too advanced spell for a second year.

"I don't think there's anything to do except wait for it to stop," I said. "That's a difficult curse to work at the best of times, but with a broken wand…" I trailed off. Ron looked horrible and I didn't want to make this any worse by blaming him or anything.

"What did Lockhart want?" Harry asked, apparently trying to change the subject. I was grateful, and I was certain Ron was.

"Givin' me advice on gettin' kelpies out of a well," Hagrid answered angrily. "Like I don' know. An' bangin' on about some Banshee he banished. If one word of it was true, I'll eat my kettle."

I couldn't believe what Hagrid was saying. He had written a book about the Bandon banshee, and if he hadn't done it, surely it wouldn't have been printed. And he was a _teacher_. "I think you're being a bit unfair. Professor Dumbledore obviously thought he was the best man for the job – "I began, but Hagrid cut me off.

"He was the _on'y_ man for the job. An' I mean the _on'y_ one. Gettin' very difficult ter find anyone fer the Dark Arts job. People aren't too keen ter take it on, see. They're startin' ter think it's jinxed. No one's laster long fer a while now. So tell me, who was he trying to curse?" Hagrid asked, jerking his head in Ron's direction.

"Malfoy called Hermione something. It must've been really bad, because everyone went mad," Harry replied. I was glad to know I wasn't the only one who hadn't understood the insult.

"It was bad," Ron said. He sounded terrible, and he looked even worse. I wanted to do something to help him, but I knew there wasn't anything I could do. I hated seeing him looking like this. "Malfoy called her 'Mudblood', Hagrid – " Ron said, but he was cut off when another round of slugs arrived and needed to get out of his mouth.

"He didn'!" Hagrid cried, turning to look at me.

"He did," I replied, "but I don't know what it means. I could tell it was really rude, or course…"

"It's about the most insulting thing he could think of," Ron said as his head emerged from the bucket. "Mudblood's a really foul name for someone who was Muggle-born – you know non-magic parents." I understood now. It was just like back at the bookshop in Diagon Alley. Ron continued to explain about the prejudice purebloods have against muggle-borns, but I already knew this from my reading.

"It's a disgusting thing to call someone," Ron continued. "Dirty blood, see. It's mad. Most wizards these days are half-blood anyway. If we hadn't married Muggles, we'd've died out." Ron had to stick his head back in the bucket then, as more slugs were forcing their way out, and Hagrid told him it was probably best that he hadn't actually hit Malfoy as his father wouldn't have been happy.

Harry and Hagrid began to talk about Lockhart and signed photos, but I continued to watch Ron. When Malfoy had insulted me, he had grabbed his wand immediately. I didn't see even a split-seconds hesitation. He had tried to curse Malfoy for me, and he was now going through all of this for me. I couldn't believe it. I had never had friends that would stand up for me like that. It made me feel really good. I smiled to myself. True friendship was something I never thought I'd have, and yet, here I was.

* * *

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	24. Frozen

**Hey guys, here's chapter 24 all ready!**

Chapter 24: Frozen

"Today, we will be brewing the Beautification Potion," Professor Snape announced as we settled into class. We were now well into the middle of October and classes had been steadily moving away from the simplicity of first year magic towards more complicated second year magic.

Upon hearing what potion we would be making, Ron made a remark to Harry, but I didn't hear as he was sitting on Harry's other side.

"As you all should remember, last year, we brewed the Anti-Aging Potion. Does anybody remember what that potion does?" Snape asked. I raised my hand immediately, and only after Snape had looked at everyone else did he finally concede and allow me to answer.

"The Anti-Aging Potion stops the visual aging process in older witches and wizards and gives the illusion that they are still young. The potion does not change the individual's age, nor does it slow down or stop the individual from undergoing the inner aging process, however it will prevent the individual's outer appearance from changing and deteriorating due to age. For example, hair does not appear to change to white or grey and wrinkles do not become visible," I replied, reciting the description given in _Magical Drafts and Potions_.

"Thank you, Ms. Granger," Snape said. "Next time, try to be creative enough to use your own words." Last year, this would have been cause for complete and utter mortification. I had grown used to it by now though, and though my face did heat up, I didn't take what he said to heart.

"Ms. Granger is however, correct," Snape said, and I could see that he didn't particularly like that he had to say that. "The Anti-Aging Potion gives people, as Arsenius Jigger puts it, _the illusion that they are still young_. It does not actually change the individual's appearance. It causes the individual and those around them to see something that is not really there. It creates an _illusion_."

"The Beautification Potion, however, is much more complex than this. This potion actually causes the body to change. The individual's appearance is altered. Not only do people appear more attractive, their features actually change to make them more attractive," Snape continued.

There are a number of potions of this sort, referred to as appearance altering potions. The Beautification Potion is the simplest, and therefore we will be beginning with that. It is imperative that you all successfully brew the Beautification Potion in order to be able to continue with the more complicated potions we will be brewing this year. In addition, the basics of the Beautification Potion will carry into all appearance altering potions you ever make. Even the most complicated appearance altering potion will require the basic methods learned today," Snape said.

"Sir, what is the most complicated appearance altering potion?" I heard Malfoy ask from the front of the room.

"That, Mr. Malfoy, would be the Polyjuice Potion, which when brewed correctly, can change an individual's entire appearance and transform them into another person. However, this potion is not on the curriculum for second years, and therefore there is no reason to learn about it," Snape answered.

He then had us begin to brew the Beautification Potion. Malfoy was sitting right in front of Snape's desk, and when I went up to get an empty flask for my potion, I heard him questioning Snape further on the Polyjuice Potion.

"Mr. Malfoy, the Polyjuice Potion is highly dangerous. It is in a book called Moste Potente Potions and it is in the restricted section, if you ever do brew it, it will be in a seventh year N.E.W.T class, certainly not in the first term of second year," Snape was saying as I passed by the table.

By the time I returned to my cauldron, I was completely focused on brewing my Beautification Potion and when we finally left class, I had pushed all thought of the Polyjuice Potion to the back of my mind.

* * *

That weekend, Ron and I were sitting in the common room, working on an essay for Snape about the basic theory of appearance altering potions while Harry was at Quidditch practice. Ron was getting frustrated because every time he wrote a paragraph, I read it over and informed him that it was wrong. I was only trying to help him. I probably would have been more sympathetic if he had bothered to open his potions book to find the answers.

When I was finished, I let Ron read my essay and told him he could not copy it, but that he could use my ideas, and so while Ron began to properly write his essay, I flipped through the textbook to read up about the next potion we would be brewing – the Aging Potion, which contrary to the Anti-Aging Potion, actually does make the person who drinks it physically age.

When Ron was about halfway through his essay, Harry returned to the common room and sat down across from us.

"How was practice, Harry?" I asked conversationally.

"Good, really rainy and muddy," he replied. "Nearly Headless Nick invited the three of us to his Deathday Party on Halloween," he added.

"A Deathday Party?" I said, suddenly very interested. "I bet there aren't many living people who can say they've been to one of those – it'll be fascinating."

"Why would anyone want to celebrate the day they died?" Ron asked, looking up from his essay. "Sounds dead depressing to me…"

"Well I promised him I would go," Harry said. "I suppose you could still go to the feast, Ron…" he trailed off, obviously not wanting to go alone.

"Nonsense, Ron and I will both go with you," I replied.

* * *

When Halloween finally arrived, Harry, Ron and I headed down to the dungeons for the Deathday Party. Harry and Ron both appeared to want to skip the party and go to the feast in the Great Hall, but I reminded Harry that he had promised, and Ron followed, not wanting to go to the feast alone.

The Deathday Party was interesting if nothing else. The music was a little odd, and the food was inedible, but there were many ghosts present. Many more than just those who live at Hogwarts, that's for sure.

At one point, I spotted Moaning Myrtle, and tried to avoid her, but Peeves called her over to where we were and began insulting her, which caused her to leave immediately, sobbing. Even though I felt bad for her, I was not about to follow her. Last year, when I hadn't known better, I had tried to use her toilet, which caused her to throw quite the tantrum and I had gotten used to avoiding her ever since.

Finally, I decided we had stayed at the party long enough for it not to be rude to leave, and we left, heading back up to the Great Hall in the hopes that there would still be some food. Suddenly, Harry froze, clutching a stone wall.

"Harry what're you - ?" I began to ask.

"It's that voice again – shut up for a minute – "Harry replied. I didn't know what voice he was referring to, but I decided to be silent for the moment.

"Listen!" Harry said, and I strained my ears as much as I could, yet all I could hear were the regular sounds of the castle. There was nothing out of the ordinary and there was certainly no mysterious voice to be heard.

Harry started down the hall and Ron and I had to run to keep up with him. He was saying that the voice was that way and he was following it. Then he stilled, and we tried to ask him what was going on, but he ignored us, shouting that it was going to kill someone and he began running again.

I couldn't understand what was going on. I wondered if Harry could be hallucinating the voice, until he finally stopped in a deserted passage. Harry and Ron hadn't noticed it, as it was a bit further down the corridor. I raised my hand and pointed, telling them to look, and we approached.

There were words written on the wall that read:

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED

ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE.

The words seemed familiar, and yet, I couldn't remember where I had heard about the Chamber of Secrets before. I felt like it was Nicholas Flamel all over again.

"What's that thing – hanging underneath?" Ron asked. I allowed my eyes to move away from the words and locate whatever Ron had seen. It was Mrs. Norris, Flich's cat, and she was hanging from the torch bracket by her tail, unmoving. I would have said she was dead, but there was something eerily unsettling about how stiff she was.

"Let's get out of here," Ron finally said. I couldn't have agreed more. There was something very bad about this and I didn't want to hang around.

"Shouldn't we try and help – "Harry began, but Ron cut him off.

"Trust me, we don't want to be found here," Ron said.

I made to move away, but I froze yet again when I turned and saw that the entire school had just been let out of the feast. They were closing in from both sides of the corridor, and Harry, Ron and I were standing here, appearing very much as though we were guilty.

When the students caught sight of the wall behind us, all the talking came to an end. It became so quiet; you probably could have heard a pin drop. Then, from the silence, there came a voice.

"Enemies of the Heir, beware! You'll be next Mudbloods!" the voice said. I recognized it as Malfoy's voice, and then there he was, standing right at the front of the crowd, staring right at me and grinning. I felt something inside me clench. The writing on the wall was a threat to the whole school, but Malfoy was looking right at me and by the look on his face, I knew that he was directly threatening me. And I was still frozen.

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	25. The Chamber of Secrets

**Alright, here's chapter 25, enjoy!**

Chapter 25: The Chamber of Secrets

"What's going on here? What's going on?" Filch called from the crowd as he made his way towards us. When his eyes came to rest upon Mrs. Norris, they widened in shock and he fell back. "My cat! My cat! What's happened to Mrs. Norris?" he cried. His eyes narrowed, focusing on Harry, who was standing closest to the cat. "You! You! You've murdered my cat! You've killed her! I'll kill you! I'll – "

"Argus!" a stern voice said. It was Dumbledore, who had now arrived along with a number of other teachers. He passed the three of us and unhooked Mrs. Norris's tail from the torch bracket. "Come with me Argus," he said. "You too, Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger."

"My office is nearest, Headmaster – just upstairs – please feel free – " Professor Lockhart said, coming forward.

"Thank you, Gilderoy," Dumbledore replied, leading the way through the throng of students towards the stairs. I felt a little panicked. Even though we hadn't done anything, we had been found there and I'm sure it seemed very suspicious. I only hoped we would be able to convince the teachers of our innocence.

When we arrived at Lockhart's office, Harry, Ron and I stood off to the side and out of the way while Dumbledore examined Mrs. Norris on the desk. We ended up sitting down in a row of chairs against the wall while we waited for Dumbledore to finish the examination. All the while, McGonagall was bent over Mrs. Norris with Dumbledore, Snape watched in silence, Filch sobbed in a chair further away from where we were sitting, and Lockhart made suggestions which were ignored. Finally, Dumbledore looked up.

"She's not dead, Argus," he said.

"Not dead?" Filch asked, his head turning towards the desk where Mrs. Norris lay. "But why's she all – stiff and frozen?"

"She has been Petrified," Dumbledore replied. "But how I cannot say…" I began to run through everything I knew about getting Petrified. I had read that one could be Petrified, but I hadn't read anywhere how people could be Petrified.

"Ask him!" Filch cried, pointing at Harry, apparently still blaming him for what had happened.

"No second year could have done this," Dumbledore said. "It would take Dark Magic of the most advanced – "

"He did it, he did it!" Filch continued, essentially ignoring Dumbledore. "You saw what he wrote on the wall! He found – in my office – he knows I'm a – I'm a – "he scrunched up his face. "He knows I'm a Squib."

"I never _touched_ Mrs. Norris!" Harry said loudly. "And I don't even know what a Squib _is_."

"Rubbish!" Filch cried. "He saw my Kwikspell letter!" I wondered when Harry would have had a chance to see such a letter.

"If I might speak, Headmaster," Snape said from his corner of the room. "Potter and his friends may have simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time." I couldn't believe that of everybody in this room, Snape would be the one to defend us. He hates Gryffindors and does anything to get us into trouble, and on top of it, he seems to hate Harry above all the rest of us. "But we do have a set of suspicious circumstances here. Why were they in the upstairs corridor at all? Why weren't they at the Halloween feast?"

I started to explain about the Deathday Party at the same time as Harry and Ron, and somehow we managed to get the message across even though we were talking over each other.

"But why not join the feast afterwards?" Snape asked. "Why go up to that corridor?"

Then I remembered Harry's weird behavior and the voice he claimed to have heard. I knew that it probably wouldn't be a good idea to tell the teachers about the mysterious voice as they would probably think he was insane. I looked over at Harry to try to convey the message that he should keep the voice a secret.

"Because – because – "he began. "Because we were tired and wanted to go to bed," he finally said, a little unconvincingly.

"Without any supper?" Snape asked, a smile appearing on his face for a moment. "I didn't think ghosts provided food fit for living people at their parties."

"We weren't hungry," Ron claimed, but his stomach betrayed him but growling very loudly at that particular moment. Snape's smile returned and this time, it was even wider.

"I suggest, Headmaster, that Potter is not being entirely truthful. It might be a good idea if he were deprived of certain privileges until he is ready to tell us the whole story. I personally feel he should be taken off the Gryffindor Quidditch team until he is ready to be honest," Snape said.

"Really Severus," McGonagall said, as though this were a ridiculous idea. "I see no reason to stop the boy playing Quidditch. This cat wasn't hit over the head with a broomstick. There is no evidence at all that Potter has done anything wrong."

"Innocent until proven guilty, Severus," Dumbledore said a little cryptically.

Filch still didn't seem all too happy. "My cat has been Petrified! I want to see some punishment!" he cried, shaking.

"We will be able to cure her, Argus. Madam Sprout recently managed to procure some Mandrakes. As soon as they have reached their full size, I will have a potion made which will revive Mrs. Norris," Dumbledore said calmly.

"I'll make it," Lockhart announced. He had been quiet for some time. "I must have done it a hundred times, I could whip up a Mandrake Restorative Draught in my sleep – "

"Excuse me," Snape interrupted. "But I believe I am the Potions master at this school." Clearly, Snape didn't like Lockhart very much, and though I'm sure Lockhart could have done a fine job, he backed off.

Dumbledore finally let Harry, Ron and I leave, and we left as quickly as we could without being rude.

"D'you think I should have told them about that voice I heard?" Harry asked once we had gotten away.

"No," Ron said, before I could reply. "Hearing voices no one else can hear isn't a good sign, even in the wizarding world."

"You do believe me, don't you?" Harry asked, worried. Even though it was very strange, and I hadn't heard the voice myself, I somehow did believe Harry had heard something. I just couldn't understand what it could have been.

I nodded my head while Ron answered. "Course I do, but – you must admit it's weird…"

"I know it's weird," Harry replied. "The whole thing's weird. What was that writing on the wall about? _The Chamber of Secrets has been Opened_… what's that supposed to mean?"

I stopped listening to their conversation at this point. Somehow, these two things must be connected. Harry heard the voice and somehow it leads us to the corridor where the attack had taken place. I knew I had heard about the Chamber of Secrets somewhere, but I couldn't remember where. I realized that it was probably in _Hogwarts: A History_. I tried to remember something about it, but I couldn't.

When we got back to the dormitories, I immediately checked my trunk, but my worry was only confirmed. I had had to buy so many new books for this year that not all my books had fit into my trunk and I had been forced to leave some behind. My copy of _Hogwarts: A History_ was sitting uselessly in my room at home.

The next day, at break, I went straight to the library. I didn't even bother trying to locate the book in the hundreds of shelves that made up the library, I went straight to Madam Pince and asked to take out one of the library's copies of the book, but she informed me that they had all been checked out the night before; while Harry, Ron and I were stuck in Lockhart's office, and that there was a two week waiting list.

I began searching tons of other library books in the hopes that I could find some reference to the Chamber of Secrets at least, if anything to jog my memory, as I knew I had read about it before, but none of the other books in the library were helpful. Nevertheless, I spent all my free time reading in the library, much to Harry and Ron's annoyance.

On Wednesday, we had History of Magic. Professor Binns was giving a lecture about the International Warlock Convention of 1289, and for the first time, I found that I was unable to pay attention and take good notes. I tried my best to focus on the lecture, but I found that my mind kept wandering off to wondering about the legend of the Chamber of Secrets.

Finally, I couldn't take it anymore. I decided that if any teacher was going to be willing to tell us the legend, it would be Professor Binns. Since he's a ghost, and he doesn't really interact with the rest of the faculty, or really any of the living world outside of the classroom, it was likely that he didn't even know about the message on the wall or Filch's cat, and he would probably be open to telling the story.

I raised my hand and waited for Professor Binns to notice me. As the other students began to notice my hand was up, they began staring at me quite openly. Nobody ever raised their hand in History of Magic, and I felt like I was putting on quite a show. Finally, Professor Binns looked up randomly and saw my hand.

"Miss – er – ?" he asked, appearing shocked and amazed.

"Granger, Professor. I was wondering if you could tell us anything about the Chamber of Secrets," I asked. Many of the students who hadn't noticed anything before jumped at my words. Neville almost fell to the ground.

"My subject is History of Magic," he replied. "I deal with _facts_, Miss Granger, not myths and legends." He went straight back into his lecture, but I wasn't just going to give up. He just needed a little convincing. I raised my hand again and waited.

"Miss Grant?" he asked me, cutting his sentence short.

I decided to ignore that he got my name wrong. "Please, sir, don't legends always have a basis in fact?" I asked.

"Well," he began, clearly trying to choose his words. "Yes, one could argue that, I suppose. However, the legend of which you speak is such a very _sensational_, even _ludicrous_ tale…" He gazed around the room and for once, everyone was paying attention. "Oh, very well," he said finally, apparently glad for the sudden interest. "Let me see… the Chamber of Secrets…"

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	26. Polyjuice Potion

**Hey, so sorry for not updating in a little while. The plus is I'm home now and I have good internet. The minus is school starts next week so my writing time will be diminishing. Anyway, here's the chapter.**

Chapter 26: Polyjuice Potion

That night in the common room, all any of us could think about was the chamber of secrets. Ron was trying to do his Charms homework, but he was so distracted that he ended up setting his essay on fire. Finally, he gave up and shut his book. As I seemed to be getting nowhere with my essay either, I closed my book too.

"Who can it be, though?" I asked. "Who'd want all the Squibs and Muggle-borns out of Hogwarts?" This question had been on my mind ever since Professor Binns told us the legend and though I had thought of many possibilities, I couldn't figure out who it could be.

"Let's think," Ron said almost sarcastically. "Who do we know who thinks all Muggle-borns are scum?"

I knew where he was going with this train of thought. I had already considered him a possibility, but though he did fit the description, I just couldn't believe he was actually the Heir of Slytherin. "If you're talking about Malfoy – " I said.

"Of course I am!" Ron exclaimed. "You heard him: _You'll be next, Mudbloods! _Come on, you've only got to look at his foul rat face to know it's him – "

"Malfoy, the Heir of Slytherin?" I cut Ron off, as I still wasn't convinced. After all, he's only a second year. Surely only a sixth or seventh year could be doing this.

"Look at his family," Harry said, giving up on his homework as well. "The whole lot of them have been in Slytherin, he's always boasting about it. They could easily be Slytherin's descendants. His father's definitely evil enough."

"They could've had the key to the Chamber of Secrets for centuries!" Ron said, encouraged by Harry's agreement. "Handing it down, father to son…"

"Well," I said, still a little hesitant. They did bring up good points. We couldn't just rule out the possibility that it's him. "I suppose it's possible…"

"But how do we prove it?" Harry asked.

I had been thinking about this during the day as well. "There might be a way," I said. "Of course, it would be difficult. And dangerous, very dangerous. We'd be breaking about fifty school rules I expect."

"If, in a month or so, you feel like explaining, you will let us know, won't you?" Ron asked impatiently.

"All right, what we'd need to do is to get inside the Slytherin common room and ask Malfoy a few questions without him realising it's us," I said. This was the rather obvious part.

"But that's impossible," Harry said. This was what I had thought originally, but then, I had realized that there was a way.

"No, it's not," I said. "All we'd need would be some Polyjuice Potion."

"What's that?" Harry and Ron asked. I sighed inwardly. I couldn't understand why Harry and Ron didn't pay attention in class.

"Snape mentioned it in class a few ago – " I began, preparing to give them a lecture about paying attention. It's no wonder they still don't understand the theory behind the Beautification Potion.

"D'you think we've got nothing better to do in Potions than listen to Snape?" Ron muttered. I decided to skip the lecture and save it for next time.

"It transforms you into somebody else. Think about it! We could change into three of the Slytherins. No one would know it was us. Malfoy would probably tell us anything. He's probably boasting about it in the Slytherin common room right now, if only we could hear him." I was starting to think that Harry and Ron had a point, and Malfoy was the Heir of Slytherin.

"This Polyjuice stuff sounds a bit dodgy to me. What if we were stuck looking like three of the Slytherins forever?" Ron asked.

"It wears off after a while," I said. "But getting a hold of the recipe will be very difficult." I remembered Snape talking to Malfoy at the front of the class. "Snape said it was in a book called _Moste Potente Potions _and it's bound to be in the Restricted Section of the library."

If we were going to get that book, we were going to need to convince a teacher to sign a slip to allow us to take it out.

"Hard to see why we'd want the book, really, if we weren't going to try and make one of the potions," Ron said.

"I think that if we make it sound as though we were just interested in the theory, we might stand a chance…" I said, already trying to think of a teacher we could convince. Professor Binns wouldn't fall for my tricks a second time, I already got him to tell us the legend. McGonagall and Snape wouldn't even let us finish the sentence if we asked them…

"Oh, come on, no teacher's going to fall for that. They'd have to be really thick…" Ron said. But I knew who we could ask. If I made it seem more like I was complimenting him, Lockhart would probably sign a slip for us.

* * *

Our next Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson was Friday. When the lesson was over, we waited until the rest of the class had left and we approached Professor Lockhart at the front of the room.

"Er – Professor Lockhart?" I began, nervous about phrasing everything properly. "I wanted to – to get this book out of the library. Just for background reading. But the thing is, it's in the Restricted Section of the library, so I need a teacher to sign for it – I'm sure it would help me understand what you say in _Gadding with Ghouls_ about slow-acting venoms…" I held out the parchment.

"Ah, _Gadding with Ghouls_!" he said, smiling. "Possibly my very favorite book. You enjoyed it?" he asked, taking the slip.

"Oh yes," I said, knowing that a well placed compliment might be all that was left to get the signature. "So clever, the way you trapped that last one with the tea-strainer…"

"Well, I'm sure no one will mind me giving the best student in the year a little extra help," he said, causing me to blush, and hide my face for a second. "Yes, nice, isn't it? I usually save it for book signings," Lockhart was saying. I looked up and realized he was referring to the quill he was using.

He signed the slip and handed it back to me. While I made sure to keep the note safe in my bag, Lockhart began to ask Harry about Quidditch.

When we got out of class, we headed straight for the library.

"I don't believe it," Harry said. "He didn't even look at the book we wanted."

"That's because he's a brainless git," Ron replied. "But who cares, we've got what we needed."

"He is _not_ a brainless git," I countered. He was probably very busy and he probably trusted that I wouldn't be asking for a book I shouldn't be taking out.

"Just because he said you were the best student in the year…" Ron continued. I almost replied that I _was_ the best student in the year, but I didn't as we had reached the library.

When we showed the slip to Madam Pince, she seemed a little suspicious. She reached for the parchment, but I found that I didn't want to let it go.

"I was wondering if I could keep it," I said. I wanted to keep it as an affirmation that Professor Lockhart thought I was an exceptional student.

"Oh, come on," Ron said, grabbing the slip from me. "We'll get you another autograph. Lockhart'll sign anything if it stands still long enough." I wasn't exactly looking for an autograph, but I let Madam Pince take the slip anyway. After studying it for a moment, she went and got the book, handing it to me. I put it in my bag, and we left, going straight to the girl's bathroom on the second floor.

Since this was Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, it was generally empty as students tended to avoid it. I had decided that this would make it the ideal location to brew the potion; as we wouldn't be found out, and surely Myrtle wouldn't tell.

When we got there, I pulled _Moste Potente Potions_ out of my bag and opened it to the page for the Polyjuice Potion. I began to read the directions and discovered that it was going to be far more difficult than the Beautification Potion. I began to read the list of ingredients, hoping we would be able to find them all, and I found I was muttering to myself. The first few ingredients seemed like they would be easy enough to get. But there were other ingredients that I had no idea where to get. Powdered horn of a Bicorn and shredded skin on a Boomslang were not very commonly found ingredients. My eyes fell to the last ingredient, and I must have said it out loud, because Ron freaked out.

"Excuse me?" he said. "What d'you mean, a bit of whoever we're changing into? I'm drinking _nothing_ with Crabbe's toenails in it…"

"We don't have to worry about that yet, though, because we add those bits last…" I carried on, ignoring Ron's worries for now.

"D'you realise how much we're going to have to steal, Hermione? Shredded skin of a Boomslang, that's definitely not in the students' store cupboard. What're we going to do, break into Snape's private stores? I don't know if this is a good idea…"

I shut the book angrily. They were the ones who were so keen on finding out if Malfoy was the Heir of Slytherin, they had convinced me it could be him. "Well, if you two are going to chicken out, fine," I said. "I don't want to break rules, you know. I think threatening Muggle-borns is far worse than brewing up a difficult potion. But if you don't want to find out if it's Malfoy, I'll go straight back to Madam Pince now and hand the book back in…"

"I never thought I'd see the day when you'd be persuading us to break rules," Ron said. "All right, we'll do it. But not toenails, OK?" he asked. I could work with that. It would probably be easiest to use hair anyway.

"How long will it take to make, anyway?" Harry asked. I opened the book again and read it over.

"Well, as the fluxweed has got to be picked at the full moon and the lacewing flies have got to be stewed for twenty-one days… I'd say it's be ready in about a month, if we can get all the ingredients."

"A month?" Ron asked incredulously. "Malfoy could have attacked half the Muggle-borns in the school by then!" I knew this as well as Ron, and as a Muggle-born myself, I felt the threat better than he did, but the potion takes a month, it's not like I can make it appear in the next two seconds, that's not how magic works. Ron must have seen my scowl, because he added, "but it's the best plan we've got, so full steam ahead, I say."

I studied the recipe a little while longer and began to make a plan. I would have to do most of the brewing as Harry and Ron were horrible at potions. This was not a potion to get wrong.

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	27. Let the Brewing Commence!

**Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Sadly with school starting again my updates will be getting further apart, but please bear with me!**

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Chapter 27: Let the Brewing Commence!

"You should have come straight to me!" Madam Pomfrey exclaimed when Ron and I brought Harry into the hospital wing the next day. Harry had just played in the Gryffindor versus Slytherin Quidditch game and someone had bewitched a bludger to chase after him, and it had broken all the bones in his arm. Lockhart had tried to mend it, but I suppose Harry's resistance to accept his help caused the spell to go wrong and all the bones in his arm had been vanished. "I can mend bones in a second – but growing them back – "

"You will be able to, won't you? Harry asked, worried.

"I'll be able to, certainly, but it will be painful. You'll have to stay the night…" Madam Pomfrey answered, throwing him a pair of pyjamas. She drew the curtains around Harry so that he could change and I waited on the outside while Ron helped him – his arm was pretty useless now.

"How can you stick up for Lockhart now, Hermione, eh?" Ron called through the curtain. "If Harry had wanted de-boning, he would have asked."

"Anyone can make a mistake," I replied. Harry and Ron just didn't like Lockhart, so they always found fault with him. "And it doesn't hurt anymore, does it Harry?" I asked.

"No," Harry replied. "But it doesn't do anything else, either."

Madam Pomfrey indicated that we could go behind the curtain, and I followed her. She had a bottle of Skele-Gro, which she poured into a glass for Harry.

"You're in for a rough night," she told him. "Regrowing bones is a nasty business." After he had taken it – with much difficulty – Madam Pomfrey left.

"We won though," Ron said, clearly trying to lighten the mood. "That was some catch you made. Malfoy's face… he looked ready to kill!"

"I want to know how he fixed that Bludger," I said. Somehow, I just knew that he was behind it.

"We can add that to the list of questions we'll ask him when we've taken the Polyjuice Potion," Harry replied. "I hope it tastes better than this stuff…"

"If it's got bits of Slytherins in it? You've got to be joking," said Ron.

Then the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team arrived with all the makings of a party and Madam Pomfrey came rushing out of her office and shooed us all away.

Ron and I returned to the common room, where the party went on without Harry.

* * *

The next morning, Ron and I were heading to the great hall to get some breakfast before going to see Harry in the hospital wing, but we paused as we passed the staff room.

"… another attack Filius," Professor McGonagall was saying. I knew immediately that the attack they were talking about was the same one that happened to Mrs. Norris.

"A student?" Professor Flitwick was asking. I turned my head around to look at Ron and his face was filled with horror.

"I'm afraid so. A first year, Colin Creevey," McGonagall replied. Upon hearing the name, I felt a shock run through my whole body. Only yesterday Colin had been irritating Harry with his camera and now today he was Petrified.

As Professors McGonagall and Flitwick continued talking about the attack, I motioned for Ron to follow me and we began walking down the corridor. I decided that we would have to skip breakfast and visiting Harry in favor of starting the Polyjuice Potion right away. Hopefully the sooner we interrogated Malfoy, the sooner we could put an end to the attacks.

"Hermione, this isn't the way to the Great Hall," Ron said tentatively from behind me.

"Ron, were you listening to Professor McGonagall in that room?" I asked, wheeling around.

"Y-yes," he stammered, unnerved by my sudden questioning.

"How are we going to find out if Malfoy is the attacker if we sit around eating all day rather than working on that potion?" I asked, turning back around and continuing down the corridor, leaving Ron standing behind.

After a few seconds, I heard footsteps, and then a couple gasps for breath behind me. "Yeah, alright, good idea," Ron said. "So where're we going?"

"To get supplies," I replied, probably not very helpfully. I lead him down to the student store cupboard and got the ingredients we would need. I knew we needed to start stewing the lacewings right away, and we would need to add knotgrass periodically.

When we had everything we would need, we headed back up to the second floor girl's bathroom to brew the potion. I chose the cubicle that was farthest away from Myrtle's toilet and conjured a fire in the toilet, placing the cauldron on top of it. Ron came in with me and we locked the door in case a confused first year came in or something.

I opened the potions book to begin. I handed Ron the fluxweed and asked him to measure out the correct amount. I took the leeches and began preparing them. When Ron had measured it, I flattened myself against the wall of the cubicle to allow Ron to reach the cauldron to add the fluxweed.

As he was leaning over, the bathroom door creaked open and and a voice announced, "It's me."

In his panic, Ron jerked, banging his head on the opposite wall and flinging his arm into the cauldron of water, causing a large splash and a fair amount of water landing on the floor. Instinctively, I gasped, and then clapped a hand over my mouth, as it could be anyone outside the stall, though I had a hunch it was Harry.

Just to be sure, I leaned down and peered through the keyhole in the door and saw Harry standing right in front of me. Relief spread through me. "_Harry_! You gave us such a fright. Come in – how's your arm?" I asked, as I moved further back to allow him some space. It was getting a little crowded.

"Fine," Harry replied.

"We'd come to meet you," Ron said, now recovered from the previous incident. "But we decided to get started on the Polyjuice Potion. We've decided this is the safest place to hide it." I rolled my eyes inwardly at Ron. He made it seem as though all of this wasn't my idea in the first place.

"Listen, last night, when I was in the hospital, the teachers brought Colin Creevey in. He's – " Harry began, but I cut him off.

"We already know, we heard Professor McGonagall telling Professor Flitwick this morning. That's why we decided we'd better get going – " I began, but Ron interrupted.

"The sooner we get a confession out of Malfoy, the better," he snarled. "D'you know what I think? He was in such a foul temper after the Quidditch match, he took it out on Colin." I re-checked the directions for the potion and saw that I had to put the knotgrass in before the leeches, so I grabbed the knotgrass and began tearing it up and dumping it in the cauldron.

"There's something else," Harry said. "Dobby came to visit me in the middle of the night." I looked up from my work with the knotgrass. "He came to try and get me to go home as usual – apparently he was the one that tampered with the bludger and the barrier to get onto platform nine and three quarters – but he let something else slip as he was leaving. He said that history was repeating itself and that the Chamber of Secrets was open _once more_."

"The Chamber of Secrets has been opened _before_?" I said, shocked. I wonder what could have happened for it to have been closed only to be re-opened now.

"That settles it," Ron said confidently. "Lucius Malfoy must've opened the Chamber when he was at school here and now he's told dear old Draco how to do it. It's obvious. Wish Dobby'd told you what kind of monster's in there, though. I want to know how come nobody's noticed it sneaking round the school."

"Maybe it can make itself invisible," I said. I had finished adding the knotgrass and was pushing the leeches into the cauldron. "Or maybe it can disguise itself – pretend to be a suit of armour or something. I've read about Chameleon Ghouls – "

"You read too much, Hermione," Ron said as he poured in the lacewing flies. I felt a pang of something unrecognizable at Ron's words. "So Dobby stopped us getting on the train and broke your arm… You know what Harry? If he doesn't stop trying to save your life, he's going to kill you."

As Harry and Ron continued chatting, I stirred the cauldron and tried to get rid of the strange feeling of sadness that had suddenly overwhelmed me.

* * *

After a couple of weeks, I knew we were going to need the Boomslang skin and the Bicorn horn soon if we were going to make the potion properly. I also knew that the only place in the whole school that I had a chance of finding the ingredients would be in Professor Snape's private store cupboard.

As our next potions lesson came closer, I knew we would need to get the ingredients then, as another week would probably ruin the potion. Harry and Ron weren't coming up with any ideas, so I made a plan.

"What we need, is a diversion. Then one of us can sneak into Snape's office and take what we need. I think I'd better do the actual stealing. You two will be expelled if you get in any more trouble, and I've got a clean record. So all you need to do is cause enough mayhem to keep Snape busy for five minutes or so," I told them. Though I didn't say it out loud, I also thought it would be better that I did the stealing because I was afraid they wouldn't get the right ingredients.

When Thursday's potions class arrived, I was feeling extremely nervous. Stealing was a pretty huge deal and I couldn't even imagine what would happen if I got caught. It took all of my concentration to focus on brewing my Swelling Solution and I almost added fluxweed instead of the dried nettles I was supposed to be adding because my mind was on the Polyjuice Potion that was simmering in the bathroom.

Harry was supposed to wait for my signal for the diversion, but Snape had spent most of the class watching him. When he finally turned his back to walk towards the front of the room, I glanced over at Harry and nodded, and then proceeded to the student store cupboard in the back, pretending to be getting some more bat spleens.

I waited at the cupboard and then there was an explosion. This was my cue, so I checked to make sure Snape was looking elsewhere and I slipped out the door. Once I was out the door, I ran down the corridor to Snape's office and burst into his store cupboard. I searched frantically until I found what I needed and took it. I made sure to put everything back the way it was and then I shut the door behind me and ran back to the classroom, hoping I hadn't taken too long.

When I reached the door to the classroom, I hid the ingredients under my robes and peeked in. Snape was administering a Deflating Draft to Malfoy, so I slipped back into the room and inconspicuously made my way back to my station and slipped the stolen ingredients into my bag.

Snape was furious when he found the remnants of the firework Harry had thrown in Goyle's cauldron. Thankfully, the bell rang ten minutes later and he never found out for certain who threw it.

After class, we ran to the bathroom and I went straight to the potion and added the new ingredients. I started stirring while I consulted the directions and announced that it would be ready in two weeks, just in time for Christmas.

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	28. Parseltongue

**Alright, so here's chapter 28! Enjoy.**

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Chapter 28: Parseltongue

The next week, a Dueling Club started up. Ron suggested that the three of us sign up, so we did. That night, we headed back to the Great Hall at eight o'clock for the first meeting. When we arrived, we found that all the tables had been taken away and a stage had been set up. If I hadn't known I was in the Great Hall, I would never have guessed that this was where I had eaten dinner less than two hours ago.

"I wonder who'll be teaching us?" I said as we entered and made our way over to the stage. "Someone told me Flitwick was a dueling champion when he was young, maybe it'll be him."

"As long as it's not – "Harry started to say, but he stopped when Professor Lockhart entered to start the class. Harry's groan told me that he had been hoping Lockhart wouldn't be the teacher present, but I was sure once he started showing us how to duel Harry would forget about his misgivings.

"Gather round, gather round! Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent!" Lockhart began. "Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little dueling club, to train you all up in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless occasions – for full details, see my published works. Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape," he said, as Snape came out onto the stage as well. "He tells me he knows a tiny little bit about dueling himself and has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration before we begin. Now, I don't want any of you youngsters to worry – you'll still have your Potions master when I'm through with him, never fear!"

Just as I had read in _The Art of Dueling_ which I had taken out of the library, Lockhart and Snape began by turning to face each other and bowing. Then they raised their wands in the accepted positions and prepared to cast their spells. Lockhart explained everything as they went, while Snape simply glared.

Lockhart counted to three and then Snape cast the Disarming Charm on Lockhart, causing him to go flying backwards and crashing to the floor. When he didn't move right away, I stood up on the tips of my toes to see what was going on.

"Do you think he's alright?" I asked.

"Who cares?"Harry and Ron replied. If I didn't know any better, I would say they were glad to see Lockhart sprawled on the floor.

Finally, Lockhart got up and explained that he could have stopped the spell, but thought it wise to show us the effect of Snape's charm. Then he announced that it was our turn to try and he and Snape came around to make pairs.

When Snape approached us, he sent Ron to partner Seamus Finnigan. Harry moved closer to me, apparently hoping to get partnered with me, but there was no way Snape would allow that.

"I don't think so," he said. "Mr. Malfoy, come over here. Let's see what you make of the famous Potter. And you, Miss Granger – you can partner Miss Bulstrode.

Millicent Bulstrode was in Slytherin with Malfoy. She was much larger than I was, with broad shoulders and she appeared to be very strong. Her jaw was set in an unfriendly manner and her eyes were hard and cold. I smiled at her, hoping her face would soften, but she only sneered.

"Face your partners!" Lockhart called from the stage. "Wands at the ready. When I count to three, cast your charms to disarm your opponent – _only_ to disarm them – we don't want any accidents. One… two… three…"

"_Expelliarmus_!" I cried. A jet of red light flew out of my wand just like it had Snape's wand and hit Bulstrode. Her wand flew out of her hand and I caught it in my free hand. Now that she was disarmed, I wasn't sure how to proceed. I turned to see if Professor Lockhart was close to ask him and suddenly I was on the floor.

While my back was turned, Bulstrode had pushed me over and now she had wrenched the wands away from me and had thrown them aside. She grabbed me and twisted my arm backward, causing me to cry out in pain, but I wasn't heard over all the commotion going on with the other pairs. I was too weak to fight back, so I didn't. She got me in a headlock, and all I could do was whimper and hope a teacher would stop her.

Then, I felt her being dragged away from me and looked up to see that Harry had done it. It seemed that neither of the teachers had noticed what had happened, or in Snape's case, cared. I got up and brushed myself off.

As I was fixing my robes, I found a few hairs on my shoulder that certainly weren't mine. I realized they must have belonged to Millicent Bulstrode, and it also occurred to me that since she was in Slytherin, I could use her hair in my Polyjuice Potion, so I discreetly conjured a vial and dropped them in to keep them safe, and I placed it in my bag.

When I looked up again, Harry and Malfoy were facing each other on the stage and Lockhart bellowed "Three – two – one – go!"

Malfoy was quicker than Harry and shouted "_Serpensortia_!" A long black snake shot out of his wand and prepared to attack Harry. I was sure that this wasn't an appropriate spell, and this was confirmed when Snape moved forward to get rid of it. However, Lockhart came forward to take care of it himself. He waved his wand and the snake flew high into the air only to land back on the stage. I could only assume that his intention was to knock the snake out by the impact as it appeared that the snake was unharmed.

The snake began to slither towards Justin Finch-Fletchley, and then, inexplicably, Harry was walking towards the snake. I couldn't understand what he was doing, as I was sure he didn't know a spell that would stop the snake.

Then Harry spoke, and I felt a chill run through my entire body. "Sssssssya rasssssssssi rethhhhhhhh," Harry hissed. At the sound, the snake stopped its course and turned to stare at Harry, and I knew that he was speaking Parseltongue.

Harry looked over at Justin, and Justin shouted, "What do you think you're playing at?" Then he ran out of the hall. I knew whatever Harry had said couldn't have been anything threatening or aggressive, but from Justin's point of view, Harry could very well have been telling the snake to attack him, and it had sounded quite scary.

Snape took a step towards Harry and the snake and waved his wand, causing the snake to vanish, and then stared at Harry in a strange way. Ron was closer to where Harry was and he went over to get Harry and then he steered him out of the Hall. I hurried along behind them and followed them all the way back to the common room.

"You're a Parselmouth. Why didn't you tell us?" Ron asked as soon as we were alone.

"I'm a what?" Harry asked. I couldn't even believe it. He had absolutely no idea what had just happened.

"A Parselmouth! You can talk to snakes!" Ron explained.

"I know," Harry replied. "I mean, that's only the second time I've ever done it. I accidently set a boa constrictor on my cousin Dudley at the zoo once – long story – but it was telling me it had never seen Brazil and I sort of set it free without meaning to. That was before I knew I was a wizard…" I slowly shut my eyes and kept them shut for a few seconds while I regained my thoughts. He was talking about this so casually, when it was such a serious subject.

"A boa constrictor told you it had never seen Brazil?" Ron asked, his voice sounding a little weak.

"So?" Harry asked. "I bet loads of people here can do it."

"Oh no they can't," Ron replied. "It's not a very common gift. Harry, this is bad."

"What's bad?" Harry asked, clearly confused. "What's wrong with everyone? Listen, if I hadn't told that snake not to attack Justin – "

"Oh, that's what you said to it?" Ron asked.

"What d'you mean? You were there… you heard me," Harry replied. I could see where this was going and I didn't like it…

"I heard you speaking Parseltongue, snake language. You could have been saying anything. No wonder Justin panicked, you sounded like you were egging the snake on or something. It was creepy, you know," Ron explained.

"I spoke a different language?" Harry asked, his eyes open wide. Somehow, I don't know how, Harry had spoken Parseltongue without even realizing it. He probably thought he was speaking English. "But – I didn't realize – how can I speak a language without knowing I can speak it?"

Neither Ron or I answered. This was big. Harry had absolutely no idea what he had done tonight. How many other times had he done things he hadn't realized he was doing?

"D'you want to tell me what's wrong with stopping a dirty great snake biting Justin's head off? What does it matter _how_ I did it as long as Justin doesn't have to join the Headless Hunt?"

I took a deep breath and answered him. "It matters, because being able to talk to snakes was what Salazar Slytherin was famous for. That's why the symbol of Slytherin house is a serpent," I said. I felt like the temperature in the room dropped a couple of degrees as Harry's mouth fell open.

"Exactly," Ron said. "And now the whole school's going to think you're his great-great-great-grea-grandson or something…"

"But I'm not," Harry said in a panic.

I thought about how he hadn't even known he was speaking Parseltongue. I thought about how he hadn't realized he wasn't speaking English. There was a chance that somehow, he had actually been the attacker without realizing it. I didn't think he would do any of it on purpose, but if somehow there was some way that it had happened without his realizing it… "You'll find that hard to prove," I said. "He lived a thousand years ago; for all we know, you could be."

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	29. Christmas

**Alright, here's the next chapter, finally :)**

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Chapter 29: Christmas

The next morning, Herbology was cancelled because the weather was really bad. Ron and I decided to play wizard's chess while Harry paced in front of the fire, worrying about Justin. He had wanted to explain what had happened with the snake, but Herbology was the only class we had today with the Hufflepuffs.

"For heaven's sake, Harry, I finally said. "Go and find Justin if it's so important to you." So Harry got up and left, presumably to go and find Justin and set the record straight.

Ron and I continued to play chess, and when Ron beat me the first time, we set up for a second game. After the second game, though, I insisted we do a little bit of work and Ron agreed grudgingly. While Ron worked on his Charms essay, I got out a new sheet of parchment and began to write a letter to my parents.

I had deduced that the Polyjuice Potion would be ready just around Christmas, and it appeared that Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle had all decided to stay at Hogwarts for the holidays, so Harry, Ron and I had decided that the holidays would be the perfect time to use the potion. Especially since the castle would be significantly empty with everyone going home.

I did feel bad that I wasn't going to be seeing mum and dad for Christmas, but I was sure they would understand. I didn't tell them the real story, of course. News that there was a monster loose in the school and that we were brewing an illegal potion to interrogate a potential suspect would make them panic and worry and possibly even rethink their whole acceptance of my place in the wizarding world.

In the end, I told them that second years got a lot more work than first years and that my workload would be too great for me to come home. I knew they would understand that as studies always came first with me. When I had written the letter, Ron joined me on my trip to the owlery to send it. He claimed that he didn't want me to be lonely, but I knew all he wanted was an excuse to stop doing his homework.

When Ron and I got back from the owlery, there was a huge commotion in the common room. Everyone was yelling and screaming over everyone else. I spotted Neville sitting at a table off to the side, so I went over to where he was sitting and asked what was going on.

"There's b-been another attack," he said nervously. "It w-was Justin. He's b-been Petrified. And Nearly Headless N-nick was there to. Apparently he's P-petrified as well. I d-d-didn't k-know that ghosts could be Petrified." Neville seemed almost petrified with fright. He was afraid he would be next even though he was a pureblood. Though the news of the attack was extremely disturbing, especially since it was Justin, who Harry had just gone to look for, I tried to appear calm for Neville's sake.

"Neville, calm down," I said. "You're not a squib and you're not Muggle-born, so you're safe. You don't have anything to worry about. You're not even half-blood, you're a pureblood. There's no way you'll be attacked."

"B-but I'm almost a s-squib," Neville stuttered. It was common knowledge that Neville wasn't very good at magic, but that didn't make him a squib.

"Neville, are you a student here?" I asked.

"Yes," he replied.

"And does Hogwarts accept anybody non-magical to come to school here?" I asked.

"No," he replied.

"Then clearly, you are not a squib," I said matter of factly.

"Well when you say it like that…" Neville said slowly. I knew within the hour he would be back to doubting himself, and it wouldn't be much use to sit around here all day trying to convince him he was safe, so I excused myself.

"Listen Neville, Ron and I have got to go find Harry; we'll see you later, alright?" I said. He nodded and I left the common room with Ron.

We ran into Harry almost immediately after leaving the common room, as he was apparently on his way back. He explained that he had been found at the scene of the attack and that McGonagall had taken him to Dumbledore's office, but that Dumbledore didn't suspect him in the least.

Upon hearing this, I calmed down significantly. I had had my suspicions about Harry since the snake incident at the dueling club, but if Dumbledore didn't believe Harry was attacking anyone then I was sure he was right.

Knowing this, it became even more likely that Malfoy was the attacker and it became even more important that the Polyjuice Potion work. So I ran down to the bathroom to check on it and give it a few good stirs before our next class.

* * *

When I woke up on Christmas morning, it was early. Even though it was six in the morning, I decided to get up anyway. The Polyjuice Potion was looking good and I was sure it would be ready by tomorrow at the latest. Everyone else in my dorm had decided to go away for the holidays, which was nice because I had the whole room to myself.

I got dressed and, ignoring the presents at the end of my bed, I headed down to the empty common room and went down to the second floor bathroom. When I got there, I found that the potion had thickened like it was supposed to, and I became very excited. I consulted the recipe and found that all that was left was to add lacewings until it turned the colour of mud, as it was currently an icky yellow colour.

I began adding the lacewings slowly, stirring clockwise as I did so, and I watched as the potion became darker and darker, until finally, it was a deep, dark, murky brown. I checked and re-checked the directions to ensure that I had done it right, and when I was positive that I had made it properly, I took it off the toilet and got rid of the flames.

Then I replaced the cauldron on the toilet seat and turned to check on the Sleeping Draught I had begun to brew yesterday. It had to sit overnight, but it seemed ready. I hadn't mentioned it to Harry and Ron, but we would need it to give to Crabbe and Goyle while we looked like them, as it would be strange for there to be two Crabbes and Goyles in the Slytherin common room at the same time.

I had brought two small cakes with me, so I took them and injected them with the Sleeping Potion and then I put them carefully in my bag. When I was done, I locked the stall door as I left the bathroom to go and tell Harry and Ron that it was ready.

When I returned to the common room, I first went back up to my room to get Harry and Ron's gifts and then I took them over to the boy's dormitory. Harry and Ron were the only ones left in their dorm, so I didn't think twice about barging in, pulling their curtains back and saying, "Wake up!"

"Hermione – you're not supposed to be in here," Ron said, squinting and covering his eyes at the onslaught of light.

"Merry Christmas to you, too," I said, tossing him his present. "I've been up for nearly an hour, adding more lacewings to the potion. It's ready."

"Are you sure?" Harry asked, sitting up, suddenly awake.

"Positive," I replied, tossing him his present as well. "If we're going to do it, I say it should be tonight."

Before either Harry or Ron could protest, as I was sure they would, since it was Christmas Day, Hedwig swooped in with a present for Harry. After she had gone, I left Harry and Ron to open their presents, and I went back up to my room to open my own.

Harry and Ron had gotten me candy, as usual. Mum and dad had finally learned how to send owl post and had sent my present back with the owl I had used to send the letter explaining that I would be staying at school. There was a note saying they were disappointed they wouldn't be seeing me, but that my studies came first and that they understood, just as I knew they would. I felt a pang of guilt, knowing I had lied, but I shoved it away. They had also sent a Muggle novel, saying that if I had any free time, I might find it more enjoyable than a textbook. I had also received a tin of treacle fudge from Hagrid, but upon opening it, I realized it would most likely break my teeth, so I decided not to eat it.

The rest of the day was great fun. Harry, Ron and I went outside with the rest of Ron's family and played in the snow for a while, and then we trooped back inside for the most magnificent Christmas dinner I had ever had. The Great Hall was wonderfully decorated, and there was even enchanted snow falling from the ceiling. The food was amazing and everyone was merry and laughing loudly.

It was very different from the quiet Christmas I was used to with my parents. We normally spent the day together talking only a little bit and mostly spending the day in a comfortable silence. Dinner was usually a quiet affair, and after, we would clean up together and then retreat to our own rooms. Though I missed my parents, I found that I very much enjoyed spending Christmas with my friends this year.

Finally, after we had all eaten more than we should have, I'm sure, though Harry and Ron still seemed to be eating with gusto, I ushered them out of the Great Hall. It was time to prepare to use the Polyjuice Potion.

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	30. Hermione the Cat

**Alrightyyyy guyssss, here's chapter 30! **

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Chapter 30: Hermione the Cat

"We still need a bit of the people you're changing into," I said when we were alone. "And obviously, it'll be best if you can get something of Crabbe and Goyle's; they're Malfoy's best friends, he'll tell them anything. And we also need to make sure the real Crabbe and Goyle can't burst in on us while we're interrogating him. I've got it all worked out. I've filled these with a simple Sleeping Draught," I said, holding up the cakes I had prepared that morning. "All you have to do is make sure Crabbe and Goyle find them. You know how greedy they are, they're bound to eat them. Once they're asleep, pull out a few of their hairs and hide them in a broom cupboard."

Harry and Ron seemed unsure.

"Hermione, I don't think – "

"That could go seriously wrong – "

"The potion will be useless without Crabbe and Goyle's hair," I informed them. "You do want to investigate Malfoy, don't you?" I asked.

"Oh, all right, all right," Harry conceded. "But what about you? Whose hair are you ripping out?"

I smiled, and pulled out the vial from my bag. "I've already got mine! Remember Millicent Bulstrode wrestling with me at the Dueling Club? She left this in my robes when she was trying to strangle me! And she's gone home for Christmas – so I'll just have to tell the Slytherins I've decided to come back."

I left Harry and Ron with the cakes, and told them to meet me in the bathroom when they had taken care of Crabbe and Goyle while I sent straight to the bathroom to check on the potion one last time.

* * *

"Hermione?" Harry and Ron called when they entered the bathroom. I stopped stirring and came out of the stall. During the day, the potion had begun to emit a thick black smoke, but according to the directions, this was to be expected.

"Did you get them?" I asked. Harry held up some hair in response. "Good. And I sneaked these spare robes out of the laundry. You'll need bigger sizes once you're Crabbe and Goyle. I'm sure I've done everything right," I said, re-reading the directions again. I read the last line again. "It looks like the book says it should…" I trailed off. It said the potion would change colour when we added the personal ingredient depending on who we were changing into. "Once we've drunk it, we'll have exactly an hour before we change back into ourselves."

"Now what?" Ron whispered.

"We separate into three glasses and add the hairs," I said as I ladled the potion out into three glasses. I put them down between us and reached into my bag for Millicent Bulstrode's hair. I uncorked the vial and shook the hair into my glass. The potion hissed and started bubbling like mad. Then it settled back to the sick looking yellow it had been this morning.

"Urgh – essence of Millicent Bulstrode," Ron said. "Bet it tastes disgusting."

"Add yours then," I replied, knowing his and Harry's would taste exactly the same as mine and would hopefully look a lot worse.

Harry's potion turned to a really gross khaki colour that reminded me of bogey and Ron's potion became even more dark and brown. I went to reach for my glass, but Harry stopped me.

"Hang on. We'd better not all drink them in here: once we turn into Crabbe and Goyle we won't fit. And Millicent Bulstrode's no pixie," he said.

"Good thinking," Ron replied, turning to unlock the door. "We'll take separate cubicles." Harry and Ron exited and moved to the next two cubicles, while I remained in the one we had originally been in.

"Ready?" I heard Harry call from my left.

"Ready," I replied, and I heard Ron utter the same.

"One… Two… Three…" came Harry's voice, and on three, I shut my eyes and raised the glass to my lips. It tasted horrible and I wanted to throw it up, but I continued to force it down my throat until I had ingested enough.

I began to feel the potion taking effect; I could feel my insides churning. Then, I started to feel a strange sensation. Hair was poking its way up from under my skin all over my body; even on my face. I could feel my ears getting bigger and bigger and hairier and hairier. I felt a strange zap behind my closed eyelids, and I assumed my eyes had changed color. Then I felt the strangest thing of all. Something long pushed its way out of my lower back and began swinging back and forth. I could sense it in my body; control its movements, like it was another arm or leg.

In horror, I opened my eyes and reached around, only to grab hold of a huge, furry tail poking its way out of my body. I was pretty sure Millicent Bulstrode did not have a tail, and I began to panic. Clearly the potion had not worked. I could hear Harry and Ron talking outside my cubicle, but I was in too much of a panic to listen. I plunged my hand into my bag and grabbed a mirror and held it up to my face.

When I saw the reflection, I almost screamed. Instead, I backed away from it into the stall wall and dropped it back into my bag, willing it not to be real though I knew it was. I had the face of a cat. I still had my hair and my body, though all the extra hair I had felt sprouting up all over my body turned out to be fur. The worst though, apart from the tail, was my eyes. I had been right about them changing color. They were now a bright, piercing yellow.

I heard a bang on the stall door. "C'mon, we need to go…" Ron called.

"I – I don't think I'm going to come after all. You go on without me," I replied. There was no way I was going to let them see me as a cat. I supposed I could just wait in here until the potion wore off.

"Hermione, we know Millicent Bulstrode's ugly, no one's going to know it's you," Ron replied.

"No – really – I don't think I'll come. You two hurry up, you're wasting time," I said, wishing they would just leave me alone.

"Hermione, are you OK?" Harry asked.

No, I wasn't OK. I had half-transformed into Millicent Bulstrode's cat, I had fur, pointed ears, yellow eyes, and a tail. A TAIL. "Fine – I'm fine… Go on – " I said instead.

"We'll meet you back here, all right?" Harry said. I didn't say anything, and thankfully, I heard the door open, I heard their footsteps leave, and I heard the door shut. I was alone with just my cat-self for an hour.

I sat down on the floor, and I opened _Moste Potente Potions_ in the hopes that there was some mention of animal transformations somewhere that would give me any useful information. _The Polyjuice Potion is used to temporarily transform the drinker into the physical form of another. The use of the Polyjuice Potion must be limited to human transformation, however, as the attempt of an animal transformation would lead to a permanent and incomplete transformation._

A permanent and incomplete transformation. These words stared out at me from the page. I was stuck like this forever. Forever is a long time. I felt a whole bunch of emotions run through me which resulted in an onslaught of tears.

"Who's crying?" came a voice I recognized as Moaning Myrtle's. I tried to quiet my sobs, as I really didn't want her to see me, but it was no use. She floated into my cubicle, and upon seeing me, she began to laugh hysterically.

"What happened to you?" Myrtle asked.

"Nothing," I replied, hiding my face.

"You turned yourself into a cat. Now everyone's going to call you Her-meow-uh-nee," Myrtle cried, as she burst out laughing.

As she continued laughing and taunting me, I pulled Moste Potente Potions back into my lap, as I had dropped it and tried in vain to find anything that would help me.

After a little more than an hour had passed, I heard the bathroom door open and slam shut. I knew Harry and Ron were back, and I panicked. I didn't want them to see me looking like a cat.

"Hermione, come out, we've got loads to tell you – " came Ron's voice as he pounded on the stall door.

"Go away!" I cried out, knowing it would be no use.

"What's the matter?" Ron asked "You must be back to normal by now, we are…" I could hear his confusion, so I pulled my robes up over my head to hide my face and hoped that would work, but then Myrtle drifted out of the cubicle.

"Ooooooh, wait til you see, it's _awful_," Myrtle said joyfully. I knew there was no way of getting them to leave it alone at this point, so I turned and unlocked the door, emerging into the main bathroom.

"What's up? Have you still got Millicent's nose or something?" Ron asked. They still hadn't seen because my robes were covering my face.

I let my robes fall back to where they belonged and raised my head to look at Harry and Ron. I could immediately see the fear and the horror in their eyes. Ron backed up all the way into the sink, his eyes wide.

"It was c-cat hair!" I cried. "M-Millicent Bulstrode m-must have a cat! And the p-potion isn't supposed to be used for animal transformations!"

"Uh oh," Ron said unhelpfully.

"You'll be teased something _dreadful_," Myrtle squealed in delight.

They were only making me feel worse, but thankfully, Harry seemed to sense that and he took charge. "It's OK Hermione; we'll take you up to the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey never asks too many questions…" he said.

I tried to protest, not wanting anyone to see me looking like a cat, but in the end, I agreed to go because I couldn't just live in the bathroom for the rest of my life, though I did pull my robes back up to cover my face as we moved through the castle.

When we arrived at the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey was surprised to say the least, and immediately asked what had happened. I told her I drank an unknown potion, as I would have been in great trouble if the adults discovered I had brewed an illegal potion using a book from the Restricted Section of the library.

At first, I wasn't sure Madam Pomfrey was satisfied with this answer. She pursued her lips and gave me a calculating look, but in the end, she simply prepared a bed for me and gave me a potion to drink. Harry and Ron were told to leave as it was past curfew, and I was left in my hospital wing bed, to wait until my face came back.

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	31. Tom Riddle's Diary

**Alright, here's the next chapter. Hope you enjoy!**

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Chapter 31: Tom Riddle's Diary

When the rest of the school returned to Hogwarts and classes started up again, I still wasn't healed, though Madam Pomfrey said I was doing better and I could feel my fur growing shorter and my tail was getting smaller. When other students discovered I was in the hospital, some of them would try to peek in to see what was wrong with me, so Madam Pomfrey put curtains up around my bed, for which I was extremely grateful.

As I was still part-cat, I wasn't allowed to go to classes, and Harry and Ron had to bring me their notes and my homework assignments. Harry's notes were dismal, but Ron's were even worse, so I read through Harry's notes and tried my best to understand them. Thankfully, I had read all the textbooks so I had already been exposed to most of the subject matter. What irked me the most was that I was surely missing key facts provided by the teachers that Harry and Ron had missed.

After I missed my second Defence Against the Dark Arts class, Professor Lockhart came to visit me and gave me a get well card. It read: _To Miss Granger, wishing you a speedy recovery, from your concerned teacher, Professor Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defence League and five times winner of _Witch Weekly's_ Most-Charming Smile Award._

I was honored that a wizard of Lockhart's caliber would take the time to write me a get well card. Harry and Ron would be arriving soon, I was sure, with my homework, and I knew they didn't like Lockhart very much, so I stashed the get well card under my pillow where hopefully, they wouldn't notice it.

"If I'd sprouted whiskers, I'd take a break from work," Ron said a little bit later when he and Harry were delivering my homework.

"Don't be silly Ron, I've got to keep up," I replied. "I don't suppose you've got any new leads?"

"Nothing," Harry replied.

"I was so sure it was Malfoy," Ron said. When Harry and Ron had gone to the Slytherin common room and interrogated Malfoy, he had revealed that he was not the Heir of Slytherin. I had wondered if maybe he was lying to Crabbe and Goyle about it, but Harry and Ron assured me that he seemed upset that he wasn't the attacker, so now we were back to the drawing board.

"What's that?" Harry asked suddenly, pointing at my pillow.

I knew he had noticed the card from Professor Lockhart, and I tried to act nonchalant. "Just a get well card," I said, hoping they would leave it alone, but Ron grabbed it and read it aloud.

"You sleep with this under your pillow?" Ron asked, aghast, when he had finished. I was going to reply that I had only received it today, so I hadn't slept on it, but Madam Pomfrey arrived and kicked Harry and Ron out of the hospital wing while she administered my evening dose of potion.

As I drank it, I could feel my ears shrinking ever so slightly and the fur on my body receded a bit. Every dose of potion allowed me to turn a bit further back into myself, but I couldn't take it all at once, because my body couldn't handle too much potion all at once, so Madam Pomfrey had to space out my doses and my transformation back had to be gradual.

* * *

Finally, on the first Thursday in February, Madam Pomfrey announced that I would be taking the last dose of potion. The only thing that was left to change back was my eyes, which were darker, but still yellow. When I took the potion, my eyes began to sting and I shut them, and then I felt a zap behind my eyelids similar to that I felt when I transformed the first time, and I smiled, knowing my eyes had gone back to normal.

Madam Pomfrey insisted on doing a last examination before letting me go, but she was finally satisfied and I gathered my things and headed back to Gryffindor tower.

When I arrived in the common room, I was greeted by Harry, Ron and Neville, but nobody else really seemed to have noticed my absence, not that I was expecting they would. When Neville had left, Harry produced a diary he had found and explained that he had found it in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.

"Oooh, it might have hidden powers," I said, picking it up and turning it over, examining it. I wondered what could have made someone try to drown it in the bathroom, there must be something special about it.

"If it has, it's hiding them very well," Ron replied. "Maybe it's shy. I don't know why you don't chuck it, Harry."

"I wish I knew why someone did try to chuck it," said Harry. "I wouldn't mind knowing how Riddle got an award for special services to Hogwarts, either."

I remembered Ron saying that the owner of the diary had received his award fifty years ago. For some reason, this set off a little alarm in my head. Fifty… fifty…

"Could've been anything. Maybe he got thirty O.W.L.s or saved a teacher from the giant squid. Maybe he murdered Myrtle, that would've done everyone a favour…"

Then I remembered what Harry had told me about their interrogation of Malfoy. Harry seemed to be thinking along the same lines as me.

"What?" Ron asked, seeing our faces.

"Well, the Chamber of Secrets was opened fifty years ago, wasn't it?" Harry asked. "That's what Malfoy said."

"Yeah…" Ron said slowly, apparently not yet following out train of thought.

"And _this diary_ if fifty years old," I said, holding the diary up and tapping on it.

"So?" Ron said.

"Oh, Ron, wake up," I said, rolling my eyes inwardly. "We know the person who opened the Chamber last time was expelled _fifty years ago_. We know T.M. Riddle got an award for special services to the school _fifty years ago_. Well, what if Riddle got his special award for _catching the Heir of Slytherin_? His diary would probably tell us everything: where the Chamber is, and how to open it, and what sort of creature lives in it. The person who's behind the attacks this time wouldn't want that lying around, would they?"

"That's a _brilliant_ theory, Hermione," Ron said. "With just one tiny little flaw. _There's nothing written in this diary_."

Sometimes, I couldn't understand how Ron could grow up in the wizarding community and still be as oblivious as he was. Just because we couldn't see the writing didn't mean it wasn't there. I mean, it's called magic.

"It might be invisible ink!" I said, pulling my wand out. I tapped the diary three times and said "_Aparecium_!" Nothing happened, but I wasn't worried. I remembered going to Diagon Alley two Christmasses ago with my parents and buying a Revealer. I reached into my bag and pulled it out and began rubbing it on the first page. Still, nothing happened.

"I'm telling you, there's nothing to find in there," Ron said. "Riddle just got a diary for Christmas and couldn't be bothered filling it in.

I couldn't believe that this diary wasn't special, but I couldn't think of another way to make the ink appear, so I slumped my shoulders in defeat and left the diary with Harry.

* * *

A little over a week later, the day after Valentine's Day, Harry and Ron met me in the common room in the morning with interesting news. Apparently, Harry had somehow been sucked into the diary and had witnessed one of Tom Riddle's memories. It sounded to me a bit like a pensieve, though I wasn't sure how the diary had managed to show him the memory by itself.

Harry explained that Riddle had just seen the dead body of the girl that had been attacked by the monster fifty years ago and that he had proceeded to go and find Hagrid and had revealed that Hagrid had opened the Chamber of Secrets.

"Riddle might have got the wrong person," I suggested. "Maybe it was some other monster that was attacking people…"

"How many monsters d'you think this place can hold?" Ron asked.

"We always knew Hagrid had been expelled," said Harry. "And the attacks must have stopped after Hagrid was kicked out. Otherwise, Riddle wouldn't have got his award."

"Riddle does sound like Percy – who asked him to grass on Hagrid, anyway?" Ron asked.

"But the monster had killed someone, Ron," I replied.

"And Riddle was going to go back to some Muggle orphanage if they closed Hogwarts," said Harry. "I don't blame him for wanting to stay here…"

"You met Hagrid down Knockturn Alley, didn't you Harry?" Ron asked tentatively.

"He was buying a flesh-eating slug repellant," Harry replied.

Somehow, all the evidence did seem to be pointing towards Hagrid, and yet I didn't want to believe it was him. He just didn't seem the type of person to go around attacking people. Tough upon remembering Norbert and Fluffy, I realized it was possible he had released the monster.

"Do you think we should go and ask Hagrid about it all?" I asked.

"That'd be a cheerful visit," Ron said sarcastically. "Hello, Hagrid, tell us, have you been setting anything mad and hairy loose in the castle lately?"

In the end, it was decided that we would let it be for the time being. Even if Hagrid had opened the Chamber last time, he couldn't be the one who opened it this time. We decided since nobody had been attacked recently, we wouldn't say anything unless it happened again. If there was another attack, we would go and see Hagrid.

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**"Reviews?" the author pleaded.**


	32. Petrified

**Alright, here's the moment we've all been waiting for... or at least I have. Here's to hoping you guys actually like the chapter...**

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Chapter 32: Petrified

Easter came around and still, there hadn't been an attack. Our minds were all sent to think about other things. In third year, students were allowed to take elective courses. There were five to choose from; Divination, Muggle Studies, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes and Care of Magical Creatures. We were provided with information packages to look over to help us with our decision.

"It could affect our whole future," I told Harry and Ron when they didn't seem too worried about choosing properly.

"I just want to give up potions," said Harry.

"We can't," Ron replied. "We keep all our old subjects, or I'd've ditched Defence Against the Dark Arts."

"But that's very important!" I said, shocked.

"Not the way Lockhart teaches it," said Ron. "I haven't learned anything from him except not to set pixies loose." I hated to admit it to myself, but Ron did have a point.

I tried talking to some of my dorm mates to decide, but that wasn't very helpful. Lily Moon was Muggle-born like me and didn't know much about what the new courses offered. Parvati and Lavender thought Divination and Care of Magical Creatures were easiest, so they chose those courses. Sally-Anne decided to copy them so that she wouldn't be alone in her classes and Lily ended up taking both those two courses and Arithmancy, claiming to want to try different things.

In the end, I signed up for all five courses because I didn't want to let any opportunity slip past. I hadn't yet decided on a career, so what if I decided I wanted to work in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures at the Ministry, but I hadn't taken Care of Magical Creatures?

In preparation for these new courses, I was reading up on them. I was reading a book entitled _Ancient Runes Made Easy_ when Harry came down from his dormitory with some disturbing news. Tom Riddle's diary had been stolen from his trunk.

"But – only a Gryffindor could have stolen – nobody else knows our password…" I began.

"Exactly," Harry said. I wondered who would have done that. It had to have been the person who had thrown it away, because only they would have known of the diary's existence.

* * *

The next day, there was a Quidditch game; Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff. Harry, Ron and I had just left the Great Hall when Harry suddenly shouted "The voice! I just heard it again – didn't you?"

I hadn't, but what I had thought I had heard was an extremely quiet hiss, so quiet, it would have been all too easy to miss. I clapped a hand to my forehead. "Harry – I think I've just understood something! I've got to go to the library!"

Harry was hearing a voice that nobody else could hear. Harry could speak Parseltongue and nobody else at the school could. I had heard a quiet hiss right before Harry had shouted. It all made sense suddenly. Harry was hearing a snake talking and that was why nobody else was hearing it – they couldn't speak Parseltongue.

We had already established that the disembodied voice was always heard right before there was an attack, so if Harry was hearing a snake, then it must be a snake that was attacking everybody. With the realization that the voice always came before an attack, I felt a sudden chill, but I didn't stop to worry about being attacked and instead made a bee-line for the library.

When I got there, I went straight to Madam Pince and asked for a book on different types of snakes. Thankfully, she wasn't busy because most of the school was heading out to the Quidditch pitch to watch the game. She got me a book right away and I sat down and opened it up, searching for a snake that would fit the description of what was happening.

It didn't take long to find what I was looking for. When I got to the B-section of the book, my eyes fell upon the page dedicated to the basilisk.

_Of the many fearsome beasts and monters that roam our land, there is none more curious or more deadly than the Basilisk, known also as the King of Serpents. _This already sounded like it was the monster of the Chamber of Secrets – the King of Serpents was certainly the type of creature Slytherin would have chosen. _This snake, which may reach gigantic size, and live many hundreds of years, is born from a chicken's egg, hatched beneath a toad. _That would account for how the monster was still alive after all these years since the founding of Hogwarts. If the Basilisk could live for hundreds of years, it could have been waiting in the Chamber all this time for the Heir of Slytherin to let it out. _Its methods of killing are most wondrous, for aside from its deadly and venomous fangs, the Basilisk has a murderous stare, and all who are fixed with the beam of its eye shall suffer instant death. _That explained why everyone was Petrified. If the Basilisk only needed to look someone in the eye, it wouldn't have had to touch anyone at all, and so long as nobody looked it in the eye directly, they would only have been Petrified. Mrs. Norris would have seen it's reflection in the water on the floor, Colin would have seen it through the camera, and Justin would have seen it through Sir Nicholas. _Spiders flee before the Basilisk, for it is their mortal enemy, and the Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it. _I remembered that all of Hagrid's roosters had been killed and I was even more sure that the monster was a Basilisk.

I remembered Harry saying he heard the Basilisk in the walls and I was pretty sure I knew how the snake was travelling. It must have been using the plumbing. It was too big to be able to roam the corridors without being seen. I grabbed my quill and quickly wrote the word pipes below the text in the book and then I ripped the page out of the book and put the book back on the shelf. I knew Madam Pince would kill me if she knew what I had done, but I needed to bring it to McGonagall's office right away and alert the teachers of my knowledge.

I remembered that Harry had just heard the voice a few minutes ago and that the Basilisk was likely on the move right now, so I grabbed my pocket mirror from my bag and used it to guide me. I held it in front of me and walked backwards, using it to see where I was going. I made sure only to look in the mirror and nowhere else. If the Basilisk arrived and I saw it with the mirror, I would be Petrified, but if I saw it with the naked eye, I would surely die.

I rounded a corner and bumped into an older student in Ravenclaw.

"Why are you walking backwards with a mirror?" the girl asked, apparently upset at almost being knocked over.

The monster in the Chamber of Secrets," I said. "It's a Basilisk, and it kills you when you look it in the eye. If I only see it with the mirror, I won't die, I'll only be Petrified," I said quickly. The girl clearly didn't believe me.

"Why do you think the monster's a Basilisk?" she asked.

I didn't have time to explain everything to her, though. "I just know. I have to go to Professor McGonagall and alert the teachers," I said.

We were both facing the same direction and I heard a noise coming from behind us. The girl began to turn to see what it was, but I had a really bad feeling about it.

"No!" I said. "Use the mirror!" I could tell the girl was rolling her eyes at me, probably assuming I was being childish and immature, but I didn't particularly care, as long as she used the mirror to look rather than her own eyes.

I raised the mirror a bit and looked into it. I could only see my shoulder, so I raised it a bit higher to see whatever was behind us.

As soon as my mirror had been repositioned, my eyes locked onto another pair of eyes. They were bright and yellow and I felt as though they could see all the way down into my soul. It was the Basilisk.

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